Here's the TL;DR: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#lQiNSO!Zdbh!YacYZc
- Progress forward, not backward, unless you are close to being overwhelmed
- Never stay in one spot, unless you managed to trap the Rift Guardian
- Maintain minimum 50 yards distance as best you can
- Squeeze in debuffs during burst in order to snapshot prior to infinite DoT kicking in
- Always assume Kormac has poop for brains
Variations may swap out Blur for Glass Cannon or Elemental Exposure, Prismatic Armor for Force Armor, Spellsteal for Blazar, Calamity/Fracture for Safe Passage.
COMPLEMENTARY VIDEOS
*Not gearing guides
SKILLS & GEAR
ACTIVES:
LMB: Blizzard - Apocalypse: You don't spam this, as much as I see players do this. First of all, it's a DoT, so the damage is normalized. You cannot fish for critical hits. Second of all, it doesn't stack, so there's zero point in casting it in the same spot over and over unless you're refreshing it against a single target. You will only cast this more than once in a given instance if you want to cover a bigger area >30 yards.
RMB: Teleport - Safe Passage/Calamity/Fracture: I prefer Safe Passage, others Calamity because it's an easy way to guarantee the bonus from Bane of the Trapped and also use with Elemental Exposure. Safe Passage can really help prevent 1-shots (chain Jailing, Executioner/Punisher windups, Butcher's AOE fan attack, etc.) and can almost serve as a third life beyond Unstable Anomaly and Firebird's 4-piece. I also see use in Fracture as the decoys can absorb dangerous attacks (especially stray projectiles).
1: Hydra - Mammoth Hydra: More reliable source of DPS against Rift Guardians, ramps up Firebird's DoT fairly well, great passive damage alongside Apocalypse. Easy to set up.
2. Black Hole - Blazar/Spellsteal: Blazar is the more popular choice as it greatly helps ramping up fire damage for Firebird's DoT. Sets up for Apocalypse and Hydra. Triggers Strongarm Bracer's debuff. Spellsteal sees alternative use since 2.1.2 as monster density has drastically increased in general. High stack Spellsteal buffs greatly increases damage potential from skills like Apocalypse and Mammoth Hydra. Bonus for being arcane and adding to Elemental Exposure. Downside is lower damage against Rift Guardians.
3. Magic Weapon - Force Weapon: The deeps.
4. Energy Armor - Prismatic Armor/Force Armor:Prismatic for more sustain if you're already running decent levels of mitigation. Force Armor if you cannot withstand 1-shots. The latter is weaker against DoTs like Plague, Molten, Frozen ticks, etc.
PASSIVES: Blur/Glass Cannon/Elemental Exposure: Same thing as Prismatic vs. Force. If you're gonna get killed in one shot anyway, you might as well run Glass Cannon for more DPS. If you can take an extra hit with Blur, use it for the insurance. Anything's better than dying and waiting to revive. Elemental Exposure is harder to pull off, but the debuff is extraordinary with Firebird's. Even 10% is preferable.
Evocation: Helps with Teleport and Black Hole upkeep. More cooldown reduction directly translates to more DPS and survivability..
Illusionist: Mandatory for keeping Teleport up.
Unstable Anomaly: Necessary unless you enjoy taking long walks or staring at your corpse.
Hellfire users: Picking whatever you ditched amongst Blur, Glass Cannon, Elemental Exposure. If you get one of the mandatory passives, lucky you.
Alternate Item Combos: Unity - Recommended starter setup; requires immortal follower token (e.g. Enchanting Favor) and a second Unity on the follower The Compass Rose + The Traveler's Pledge - ring in place of Unity; set provides decent 250 vitality and 50% CHD. Main perk is Compass Rose's five primaries Ring of Royal Grandeur + Cindercoat/Magefist - Very glassy setup with Cindercoat, but allows much more spam (virtually useless against RG); Magefist allows five primaries Serpent's Sparker + Firebird's Eye - This frees up another Firebird piece, allowing you to run something like Tasker and Theo to maximize Hydra. Sunkeeper + Firebird's Eye - Same thing; frees up a Firebird piece. Cindercoat is a viable option with Meteor Shower replacing Hydra. Results may be more inconsistent than Furnace, but fits players who prefer faster playstyles. Devastator + Firebird's Eye - Same thing; frees up a Firebird piece and allows you to run Cindercoat.
In general, your order of choices would be:
1. Furnace
2b. Sunkeeper + Firebird's Eye
2b. Serpent's Sparker + Firebird's Eye
3. Devastator + Firebird's Eye
The reason is because a good chunk of your 15 minutes of allotted time in the Greater Rift would be against the Rift Guardian. As a result, you really want to prioritize elite damage. If you don't have a Furnace, use a Sunkeeper. Go down the list until you reach a Devastator, which can be crafted with relative ease.
If you don't have an ancient Furnace, however, go with ancient one-handed weapons if you have an ancient Firebird's Eye. Based on my experiences, it's still worthwhile to use a non-ancient Furnace over an ancient one-hander without the ancient source. Again, this is because of elite bonuses. If you decide to run an ancient one-hander over a non-ancient Furnace, you'll gain kill speed against regular mobs, but lose DPS against elites.
However, all that said, in 2.1.2 it's arguable that Devastator could be preferable over a Sunkeeper because of the drastic increase in trash density. Because the majority of the progress you get in a Rift will be from trash, you may want to prioritize your base fire damage. You'll gain time throughout the Rift fighting trash, but you'll lose time against the Rift Guardian. Think carefully about what you have more trouble with and pick your weapon.
GEMS: Zei's Stone of Vengeance: Dynamically updates all DoT damage the further you are away from the affected target. Fantastic against the RG. Gem of Efficacious Toxin: DoT damage is nice, debuff is even better as Firebird's secondary DoT double-dips into it. Moar damage. Bane of the Trapped: Bonus damage triggers as long as the target is under crowd control (you don't necessarily have to be the one doing the CC). Works on RGs (main perk).
Follower Main Gear (Templar): Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker - Thunderfury's periodic proc provides fantastic AOE crowd control. This is the main way to trigger Bane of the Trapped on multiple targets. Enchanting Favor - Used in combination with a second Unity in order to grant permanent 50% bonus mitigation
Follower Optional Gear: Freeze of Deflection - Extra CC opportunities Oculus Ring - More APS for the follower means more CC. Ess of Johan - More CC, great for helping set up targets; can sometimes get you killed if the Templar pulls mobs in onto you Legacy Star of Azkaranth - No longer available as a drop, but for vanilla players, the amulet comes with a chance for CC. Legacy Puzzle Ring - No longer available as a drop, but vanilla players, the goblin spawn can trigger at least once per Rift run. If killed, it provides a hefty amount of progress (that's if you can kill it)
Plan B:
Helm: Firebird's Plume
Shoulder: Firebird's Pinions
Chest: Cindercoat/Firebird's Breast (if using Serpent's Sparker)
Gloves: Firebird's Talons/Tasker and Theo (if using Serpent's Sparker)
Pants: Firebird's Down
Boots: Firebird's Tarsi
Bracers: Strongarm Bracers
Belt: The Witching Hour
Amulet: anything with fire bonus/CHC/CHD/socket or intelligence in place of fire if you don't have the choice
Ring 1: Stone of Jordan
Ring 2: Unity
Weapon: Sunkeeper/Serpent's Sparker/Devastator
Off-hand: Firebird's Eye
GAMEPLAY
Firebird's for high Greater Rifts takes a lot of practice and isn't exactly easy to master. It requires a keen sense of positioning and involves quick reaction times. The faster you can adjust to the situation and your surroundings, the better you will fare. No exaggeration. You have to constantly make decisions throughout the entire Rift from beginning to end.
All serious GR attempts follow a system similar to driving on the road. It involves repeating three phases over and over and over again:
In Phase 1, you will be scanning your surroundings. In terms of GRs, you will be constantly checking the minimap and your character's immediate vicinity for enemies and patterns. In addition, checking on the progress bar for how much time you have remaining is important. You have to factor in the time it'll take you to down the RG. As soon as you get an idea of what type of tileset you're in (e.g. Caverns tileset, Keeps tileset, Sewers tileset, etc.) and what mob combination populates the Rift level, you move on to Phase 2.
In Phase 2, you will be predicting the best and worst outcomes for the current Rift level. Based on the mob types and the level tileset, you have to decide whether to attempt to trigger Firebird's on the enemies you encounter or skip them. For low density levels in long, intricate map layouts (e.g. levels that resemble Act II's Sirocco Caverns), you may have to decide to speed through it to get to the next level rather than waste time picking off the occasional enemy. Depending on how any of these levels roll, you move on to Phase 3.
In Phase 3, you react to situations based on your predictions in Phase 2. This is where players adapt. Sometimes things will go as planned (density is exactly what you expected), sometimes not (encounter mob types you did not expect, hit a dead end, etc.).
As of Patch 2.1.2, changes to monster compositions, density, map layouts, and Pylons have made Greater Rift attempts far easier than it has ever been before. The roadblocks are the same, though, as you will eventually hit a DPS wall and will no longer be able to progress due to gear limitations. The ceiling is simply higher than pre-2.1.2 days.
In terms of actually playing the GR Firebird build, you need to develop some good habits. The first is to remember to move forward as much as you can, rather than kite in circles, or worse, backward. Walking through empty levels is the worst for GR progression. You always want to have something to kill. As a result, when you find clusters of mobs, you want to be able to "herd" them toward other mobs you come across deeper in the Rift level.
In Patch 2.1.2, mob density has been increased to the point where kiting forward incessantly can easily overwhelm you and get you killed. As a result, you have to be fully aware of your character's limitations. As soon as you reach a threshold where you feel you're out of space and a single misstep will guarantee death, you need to take a step back and whittle down the enemies around you in order to create space. Positioning is always key and if you have no space for optimal positioning, you're asking for a lot of trouble.
Example scenario: You see a cluster of Lacuni Slashers, Fallen Masters, and Fallen Soldiers in front of you. Instead of casting Black Hole and Apocalypse on them and then running in circles while the DoTs kill them, you need to aggro them with Apocalypse while moving ahead of them, all while covering the path in front of you with additional casts of Apocalypse. This will keep the DoT on the targets while also maintaining the aggro necessary for the mobs to follow you. In some cases, you will have to move in a zigzag route for slow mobs that have a difficult time keeping up, such as skeletons and zombies.
However, if you're in a situation where you find massive clusters of mobs ahead of you with more incoming from behind, you must pull the mobs in front toward you and combine them with the ones you herded from behind. Combining clusters of mobs and then whittling their numbers down before progressing is a decision you have to make. Investing some seconds to conservatively build up progress, speeding ahead with greed to obtain more progress, or speeding ahead and get overwhelmed by sheer numbers, can be the difference in making or breaking your Rift attempt.
The same herding concept applies to elites. You do not want to sit around waiting for elites to die. In higher GR levels, e.g. 40+, elites regularly have several billion HP. Even if you are dishing out 500M eDPS on elites, it'll take time for them to die, and that's assuming they do not have deadly affixes you need to avoid.
You will set up with Apocalypse to aggro the elites, much like you would for regular mobs. While the elites are within Apocalypse's AOE and under CC effects from your Templar, gather them up with Black Hole and set up Mammoth Hydra AHEAD of them. Remember, you always want to try and go forward, not backward. By the time Apocalypse ticks away, Black Hole nuked and debuffed the elites, and Hydra attacked a couple of times, you will start leapfrogging both Apocalypse and Hydra while moving ahead of the elites. The infinite DoT from Firebird's should have kicked in if you managed to land all your fire spells. If not, the sequence must be repeated, again, all while moving forward.
In the best situations, while moving forward, you will be able to herd multiple elite packs together. The more targets you combine, the more you can utilize area damage for Apocalypse (Firebird's DoT and Hydra attacks do not benefit from area damage) and Black Hole can help cluster multiple high priority targets together. In addition, more threats to hit you allows you to spam Teleport more often to get yourself in a better position.
To repeat, remember despite always wanting to progress forward, there will be instances where you obviously cannot do that. At some point, you will be aggroing and herding up mobs faster than you can kill all of them. In those situations, it's necessary to just bear down and make sure a good number of them die before you continue on. Many players end up dying simply because of being overwhelmed.
There are also specific types of enemies that you should not attempt to herd. These include Winged Assassins, Lacuni Huntresses, Burrowing Leapers, and their kin. These types of enemies will more than likely always outrun you unless you attempt to spam Teleport beyond their aggro range (which would mean you're not going to be killing them with the DoTs anyway). So if you end up with an elite pack of Winged Assassins, you have two choices. Deal with them on the spot by tanking the best you can and running in circles, or Teleport as far away as possible and skip them if you think you're going to end up dying to them. Granted, trying to skip them could put you in the "overwhelmed" situation if more mobs of the same type are located ahead.
TIPS & TRICKS
1. If your goal is to place as high on the leaderboard as possible and you have a lot of time on your hands, you can "cheat" a little by gathering up a group of DHs + zDPS crusader to speed farm Trial Rifts. It is incredibly easy to pick up GR40+ keys by doing this. While it is pretty lame, you can binge on these keys by opening GR after GR, picking your map layouts and mob types until you get the one you think you can clear. Doesn't always work, but by skipping the maps and mobs you think will cause you more of a headache, you save time.
2. Always clear maps that are filled with high progress-to-effort ratio mobs. Basically, these enemies provide a lot of progress for little effort. Example mobs include:
- Moon Clan Ghosts, Warriors, and related - 0.3% per kill
- Dust Eaters, Grotesques, Lacuni Warriors - 0.5% per kill
- Disentombed Hulks - 1.25% per kill For a longer list: http://www.forum.vizjereiclan.com/index.php?/topic/241-greater-rift-progression-data/
3. On the other hand, skip the ones with low progress-to-effort ratios. Basically these are mobs that either take too long to kill for their progress or offer little to no progress at all. If you try to herd them and kill them, you're going to be wasting a lot of time. However, there are low progress mobs that may be in your best interest to kill alongside others, such as Skeletal Archers, as the more you end up herding, the more they can become major headaches.
4. When fighting a Rift Guardian, try to kite it to narrow corridors or corners with doors so your Templar can block it, allowing you to move into blind spots outside aggro range. This will allow you to place your Hydra and for you to stand at max distance to get the most out of Zei's, and also allow you to freely cast your Apocalypse and Blazars for guaranteed hits. However, the Templar will be stupid and run to your side if you move too far away, so be careful.
Two things:
1) Does Bane of the Trapped not trigger itself via its lvl25 debuff? Or do you mention other CCs because you intend to be further away from the mobs?
2) About Elemental Exposure: You might replace "non-fire-weapon" with "cold, arcane or lightning weapon", because there are several other useless damage types.
Hey i dont understand the use of Bane of the Trapped over Bane of the Powerful at all. Can you explain that? I can maybe see something like that in higher GR the buff falls off too much but isnt it just better than to use 20% Fire dmg on the Amulet instead of of BotT?
There is a not so obvious difference between the two gems.
You can check the information here: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/14058607023
Basically Bane of the Powerful is in the same category as regular dmg % increase buffs, which means it gets less valuable the more you have from other sources (skills, items, etc.), while Band of the Trapped is in it's own category, so it scales better.
Same reasoning for 20% Fire dmg. It's only 20% if you have no % Fire dmg at all on gear, but if you already have 80% Fire dmg for example, it's only a 11% increase.
I really appreciate this write-up. I've had some questions on strategy and have sort of just been winging it and learning through play, but now am hitting a wall at GR38 and trying to see if it's more a gear wall (no Furnace /sadface) or knowledge / playstyle. I especially like the insight on mob types - which are better / worse in progression vs. time to kill, letting Cultists transform (didn't know XP changed).
Very good info @Kissmyaxe on BotT -- I didn't know it was a separate buff category. I'm still thinking for my gear BotP might be better, if not for the always-on 20% general damage buff then for the +elite damage since I'm not rocking a Furnace yet and my +elite is limited to Sun Keeper and Unity.
"For low density levels in long, intricate map layouts (e.g. levels that resemble Act II's Sirocco Caverns), you may have to decide to speed through it to get to the next level rather than waste time picking off the occasional enemy."
I have been using Wormhole for exactly this reason. I wish I had Safe Passage in certain situations, as near-deaths (UA / 4-piece) cause me to play a fair bit more conservatively, but I had found myself failing higher rifts most frequently by getting stuck on some long, useless map with terrible spawns (Winged, Exarchs, Shamans, etc.). Being able to tele-tele, get hit, tele-tele, get hit, etc. I can get off a bad map very quickly and salvage the run.
From my experience (GR38 -- needs that Furnace!), I tend to prefer Mirror Image - Duplicates over Hydra. Maybe that sounds blasphemous, but the gains of MI are many:
They taunt.
They bodyshield ranged attacks.
They keep mobs still / inside Apocalypse.
They cast Apocalypse @ 10%, dealing fire damage, helping to keep Firebird's from falling off while you try to stack. (assumed, not confirmed)
They cast Black Hole for insane crowd control.
Doesn't cost any AP.
Cooldown resets on Illusionist trigger.
Also from Illusionist, gives you 30% speed buff for 3 seconds, so you can maneuver away while they taunt.
They're great against frustrating mobs like Winged Assassins because they soak the leaps.
But even so, my choice is more informed by how little I tend to think of Hydra. Hydra has two main benefits:
Faster Firebird DoT capping
Increased kill speed (chiefly elites and GR)
Re #1 -- for experienced kiters, with good damage setup and proper use of Blazar you will hit Firebird cap with considerable ease. Hydra might get you there a little faster, but requires at least a tiny bit of setup, a stutter to cast, and doesn't always hit everything so you may be left to cap those it misses using Apocalypse and Blazar anyway. I tracked a few dozen mid-30s trials with Hydra and with Mirror Image, and my time to reach RG was about 45 seconds faster on average with Mirror Image -- I didn't miss the damage from Hydra as far as ramping up. Maybe I just suck with setting up Hydra.
Re #2 -- at higher and higher GR, mobs and especially elites and RGs have ridiculous amounts of HP - to the extent that the time and damage dealt prior to Firebird DoT capping is generally a minor % of the total kill. So what really matters for kill speed is what things look like once the DoT is capped.
Take an RG fight for example (one that doesn't have the ability to clear the DoT). From the moment the DoT is up, until they die, they're taking 3000% weapon damage every second. If you had enough time (3-4 minutes), you could literally teleport to the other side of the map, back and forth, over and over, and just let the RG die on its own trying to chase you without ever interacting with it again (all the while Zei's stays at maximum effect). For harder RGs, this may be preferable to trying to kite just off screen and being subject to teleports / leaps / charges / etc., though I tend to prefer at least leaving Apocalypse trails up to keep poison dot and debuff active.
So what does Hydra contribute to this situation? The RG is already taking 3000% / sec from Firebird and about 180% from Apocalypse. So Hydra's 400% add, even at 100% uptime is (and we're roughing here) a 12.5% kill acceleration. But now you're talking potentially allowing the RG to close distance (walking or otherwise), which could mean escape time and also temporarily suppresses your Zei's buff. The only time you're really going to get that maximal value is if the RG gets stuck or if you can body block with Templar in a doorway and it can't / won't teleport.
Maybe I'm devaluing Hydra too much or wrong in various assumptions, and I'd love to hear some arguments in its defense, but I can't shake the outcome I've seen in my trial runs whereby swapping Hydra for MI was hands-down a time saver.
1) Does Bane of the Trapped not trigger itself via its lvl25 debuff? Or do you mention other CCs because you intend to be further away from the mobs?
BoT's area is only 15 yards and you're more than likely not going to remain within 15 yards of enemies all the time (if at all). Plus, it's counterintuitive to do so with Zei's.
Maybe offer some specific solution how to kill the 2-3 elites you pulled. And the hard part of keep the dots on the elites and keep them following you.
Like you shoot black hole first, keep apply blizzard on the track the enemy coming to you etc. Combinations.
Once you get the infinite DoT on elites, the work is just herding them around and adding passive supplementary damage while you kill other things and try to stay alive.
Hey i dont understand the use of Bane of the Trapped over Bane of the Powerful at all. Can you explain that? I can maybe see something like that in higher GR the buff falls off too much but isnt it just better than to use 20% Fire dmg on the Amulet instead of of BotT?
Bane of the Trapped is multiplicative, which is the best bonus you want. Nothing will come close. With a Templar you have perma-CC on any target he hits. BoT upgrades the damage a target takes so it will provide more damage than BoP, hands down, it's not even an argument between the two gems.
Yes but if you use Furnace you will only have 40% Fire dmg in total and then 20 additional % is quite a huge increase still. And i mean its up EVERY single milli second of any fight i dont think that BotT will be up 100% of the time on every single mob.
As long as the debuff is there when Firebird's DoTs kick in, it will be snapshot in for the remainder of the DoT's duration. The Templar can provide all the CC you need. And when you truly need the extra DPS, i.e. against the RG, it's guaranteed that you will get the BoT bonus whereas you will not necessary have BoP.
1. Hydra out-DPSes all your other fire options against a single target.
2. If you cannot ramp up the damage fast enough while a debuff is applied, you're screwed because Firebird's DoT cannot be overwritten.
3. You cannot kite over a fixed distance or else the infinite DoT will fall off and you have to reset everything (see #2).
4. Mirror Image = defense. You're going to get to GR40-42 and your problem will be kill time, not defense, especially if you run Safe Passage/String of Ears.
5. Mirror Image also interrupts your herding capabilities by holding back mobs that are supposed to follow you. It's counterintuitive to the core gameplay of Firebird. The only instance it'll come in handy is if you're intentionally trying to abandon content.
6. Hydra positioning just involves placing it a distance away from the target to maximize Zei's output. That's all. It's incredibly easy to set up, the trail stacks on top of one another, and you can also recast Hydra to bypass its APS.
Fore Re#2 you just contradicted yourself for the whole argument against Hydra. If the RG is taking X damage already, your goal is to stack as much extra damage on top of that in as little time as possible. Mirror Image does absolutely nothing in that regard.
Your goal is to hit the infinite DoT ASAP and Hydra helps that case. Your goal after that is to tack on as much damage as possible and Hydra does that, even better than Molten Impact, which is another popular choice (more for T6 because of its long CD). Hydra's DoT is duplicated by the initial Firebird DoT, and while the Hydra DoTs stack, so too do the Firebird secondary DoTs, all while taking into account the infinite DoT that triggers. All of these DoTs are also amplified by any debuffs you apply to the target. None of these perks apply to Mirror Image.
With the initial fire DoTs you apply via spells (Blizzard/Hydra), secondary and infinite Firebird DoTs in effect, with any debuffs applied, it's easy to see 200-300M ticks of combined damage while running solo. In group play, e.g. with a monk/WD, damage can scale over 1 billion per 0.8 seconds with Blizzard/Hydra (optimal conditions).
^You're not devaluing Hydra. Your explanation perfectly ( at least in my experience) sums up the pros and cons of using Hydra instead of mirror images.
I'm still not certain of trapped is better than powerful. You are essentially relying on your follower's thunderfury proc to keep it the bonus up (the single target cold applied by weapon damage type is insiginificant to me since its only one target). I do realize that trapped provides a bigger damage boost but I'm not sure if its up time is high enough to beat out powerful.
^You're not devaluing Hydra. Your explanation perfectly ( at least in my experience) sums up the pros and cons of using Hydra instead of mirror images.
I'm still not certain of trapped is better than powerful. You are essentially relying on your follower's thunderfury proc to keep it the bonus up (the single target cold applied by weapon damage type is insiginificant to me since its only one target). I do realize that trapped provides a bigger damage boost but I'm not sure if its up time is high enough to beat out powerful.
Firebird's problem isn't AOE. It excels in it. The problem is on a single target, which is where BoT truly shines.
If there's any argument for BoP, it's in place of the Toxin gem. It is possible to snapshot the 20% additive bonus prior to triggering the infinite DoT on a RG, but that's assuming you have a high level one that gives you enough time to engage a RG after killing an elite.
Also, as for CC, that's why you run Intimidate on a Templar because any target that he hits and any target that hits him will be slowed. When he uses Charge/Guardian, he deals AOE damage and slows everything on contact.
Snapshotting Bane of the Trapped is one of the key distinctions. I run BotP instead, in part because of the +15% elite damage since my elite damage is low from lack of Furnace. I do see the risk that you trigger RG and aren't able to snapshot before buff falls off -- happened a few times with great displeasure.
I think I also wrote off BotT for lack of crowd control, for two reasons that were just dumb. At first was not realizing it didn't need to be MY crowd control, and thus Templar-Thunderfury would do the trick. So I started doing that, but was noticing that CC was not being entirely reliable while clearing (but had full uptime on RG). In short, I was completely overlooking Intimidate.
You're right that MI doesn't help with killing RG, but it was helping me reach RG considerably faster and consistent in not dying/failing completely. The gap was greater than what I was gaining in kill speed on RG by using Hydra, so I've stuck with it.
I will give it a whirl with Bane of the Trapped, Safe Passage, and Hydra and see if I can't crack 40 tonight.
Thanks for this nice guide. One question. Currently you have a maximus equipped. What do you think when does it get superior to use instead of a furnace? I currently own a 3,65k dps; 46% furnace, 1125 int and have a 20%, 1005 int 3506,7 maximus on my bank. Do you think it's worth using a RG for the socket?
I'm glad this thread mentioned that BoT is its own category and BoP is not. Not knowing that, I assumed BoP was the end-all-be-all #1 gem for Firebird (despite knowingly not having the buff up for the majority of a RG fight).
The one thing I wanted to add though is why so little consideration or discussion for Teleport - Fracture? My highest clear is GR40 and between string/eye/unity/blur, everything that's not a ground DoT is still capped by Force Armor (ie; reduction feels useless). I understand Safe Passage is good for ground DoTs but if that's its only purpose isn't it a bit wasteful? I can't make any claims for Fracture, but both of my record clears (38 & 40) were when I was using it over Safe Passage.
Thanks for this nice guide. One question. Currently you have a maximus equipped. What do you think when does it get superior to use instead of a furnace? I currently own a 3,65k dps; 46% furnace, 1125 int and have a 20%, 1005 int 3506,7 maximus on my bank. Do you think it's worth using a RG for the socket?
I'd like to know this as well because I have a pretty much perfect Maximus that I already gifted for testing purposes on Azmodan. It failed dps time compared to my 2300/29% Sunkeeper (purposefully discounting the chain which can only be reliably controlled on RG, so I may reconsider it).
In regards to passives, I noticed nobody else really considers alternatives too well so last week when I was doing extensive Azmodan dps tests I tried out glass cannon vs exposure vs conflag and found that exposure moved me up 1 second faster. I assumed this was because I was using FB orb (due to no furnace) and was severely over-crit %, devaluing conflag. Aside that point, glass cannon actually equalled the kill time of conflag and also failed to exposure. Why would this skill ever be considered accounting for its terrible drawback?
I am going to have to try out bane of the trapped now. But I need convincing, why efficacious toxin over bane of the powerful?
Would it also be a good idea to put in Wreath of Lightning on my follower to add more elemental exposure? Does that work? I am using fire spells and cold damage on my serpent sparker for 10% extra damage.
@DontUseMyName: Of course it triggers it, but you only have fire spells . thats only 5 percent
if you had any damagetype on your weapon but not fire you would gain 5% from that and 5% from your fire spells . thats a guaranteed 10% on every target (guarnteed means : 100% uptime)
I have a questions to ask Jaetch (and anybody else of course).
What gem to put in helm in combination with evocation? (you're missing that in your guide)
DIamong + Evocation
Amethyst + Evocation
From were i stand , having evocation only for blackhole seems a little bit wasted (it would be an awesome passive on a hellfire amulet though)
so put up a diamond in helm ? - its like 20 vs 31% cdr
Would you even stack cooldownreduction on gear if you chose to use evocation?
At the moment im in favour of glasscannon (instead of evocation) + force armor because it makes sense, as long as the -10% all res does not take you in the area where you take more damage as your maximum hp.so you get one shotted. It has a somewhat synergy.
ps. 1 more tip when the rift boss is stuck , u should drop all of your paragon movespeed and put them into int for more dps
ps2. sunkeeper was used on this kill (no furnace for me yet )
Has anyone toyed with Archon - Combustion? I ran it last in my last few runs last night in place of Hydra and set new personal record. It seemed to be pretty solid if used properly.
Basically, kite elite pack forward into another pack, pop Archon and watch the buff stack to 15-20+ within seconds from the kited trash and elite dying off. That makes crushing the new elite pack / trash a breeze - the FB DoT alone is vicious with buff. With Evocation and a touch of CDR on gear the CD isn't bad, and I found it a good balance of kite-kite-kite-bigwipe-kite-kite-kite. Comes in handy as "oh *@)!" button or when low on AP. Biggest problem is no Teleport for duration, but things died so quickly even on high 30s GRs it wasn't a problem.
Makes me want to swap some pieces around to don my 15-second Swami, getting a mini Power Pylon every 90 seconds or so.
6. Hydra positioning just involves placing it a distance away from the target to maximize Zei's output. That's all. It's incredibly easy to set up, the trail stacks on top of one another, and you can also recast Hydra to bypass its APS.
I had NO idea Hydra damage was increased by Zei's. I have been placing the Hydra as close as posssible to the mob so the fire always nailed him. It's worth it to recast Hydra every time he shoots to reset the APS then, as well?
Boy, was I doing it wrong.
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Starting to see a lot of these pop up everywhere.
Here's the TL;DR: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#lQiNSO!Zdbh!YacYZc
- Progress forward, not backward, unless you are close to being overwhelmed
- Never stay in one spot, unless you managed to trap the Rift Guardian
- Maintain minimum 50 yards distance as best you can
- Squeeze in debuffs during burst in order to snapshot prior to infinite DoT kicking in
- Always assume Kormac has poop for brains
Variations may swap out Blur for Glass Cannon or Elemental Exposure, Prismatic Armor for Force Armor, Spellsteal for Blazar, Calamity/Fracture for Safe Passage.
COMPLEMENTARY VIDEOS
*Not gearing guidesSKILLS & GEAR
ACTIVES:
LMB: Blizzard - Apocalypse: You don't spam this, as much as I see players do this. First of all, it's a DoT, so the damage is normalized. You cannot fish for critical hits. Second of all, it doesn't stack, so there's zero point in casting it in the same spot over and over unless you're refreshing it against a single target. You will only cast this more than once in a given instance if you want to cover a bigger area >30 yards.
RMB: Teleport - Safe Passage/Calamity/Fracture: I prefer Safe Passage, others Calamity because it's an easy way to guarantee the bonus from Bane of the Trapped and also use with Elemental Exposure. Safe Passage can really help prevent 1-shots (chain Jailing, Executioner/Punisher windups, Butcher's AOE fan attack, etc.) and can almost serve as a third life beyond Unstable Anomaly and Firebird's 4-piece. I also see use in Fracture as the decoys can absorb dangerous attacks (especially stray projectiles).
1: Hydra - Mammoth Hydra: More reliable source of DPS against Rift Guardians, ramps up Firebird's DoT fairly well, great passive damage alongside Apocalypse. Easy to set up.
2. Black Hole - Blazar/Spellsteal: Blazar is the more popular choice as it greatly helps ramping up fire damage for Firebird's DoT. Sets up for Apocalypse and Hydra. Triggers Strongarm Bracer's debuff. Spellsteal sees alternative use since 2.1.2 as monster density has drastically increased in general. High stack Spellsteal buffs greatly increases damage potential from skills like Apocalypse and Mammoth Hydra. Bonus for being arcane and adding to Elemental Exposure. Downside is lower damage against Rift Guardians.
3. Magic Weapon - Force Weapon: The deeps.
4. Energy Armor - Prismatic Armor/Force Armor:Prismatic for more sustain if you're already running decent levels of mitigation. Force Armor if you cannot withstand 1-shots. The latter is weaker against DoTs like Plague, Molten, Frozen ticks, etc.
PASSIVES:
Blur/Glass Cannon/Elemental Exposure: Same thing as Prismatic vs. Force. If you're gonna get killed in one shot anyway, you might as well run Glass Cannon for more DPS. If you can take an extra hit with Blur, use it for the insurance. Anything's better than dying and waiting to revive. Elemental Exposure is harder to pull off, but the debuff is extraordinary with Firebird's. Even 10% is preferable.
Evocation: Helps with Teleport and Black Hole upkeep. More cooldown reduction directly translates to more DPS and survivability..
Illusionist: Mandatory for keeping Teleport up.
Unstable Anomaly: Necessary unless you enjoy taking long walks or staring at your corpse.
Hellfire users: Picking whatever you ditched amongst Blur, Glass Cannon, Elemental Exposure. If you get one of the mandatory passives, lucky you.
KEY ITEMS:
The Furnace - http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/the-furnace
Firebird 6-piece - Helm, Shoulders, Gloves, Chest, Pants, Boots
Stone of Jordan - http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/stone-of-jordan
Alternate Item Combos:
Unity - Recommended starter setup; requires immortal follower token (e.g. Enchanting Favor) and a second Unity on the follower
The Compass Rose + The Traveler's Pledge - ring in place of Unity; set provides decent 250 vitality and 50% CHD. Main perk is Compass Rose's five primaries
Ring of Royal Grandeur + Cindercoat/Magefist - Very glassy setup with Cindercoat, but allows much more spam (virtually useless against RG); Magefist allows five primaries
Serpent's Sparker + Firebird's Eye - This frees up another Firebird piece, allowing you to run something like Tasker and Theo to maximize Hydra.
Sunkeeper + Firebird's Eye - Same thing; frees up a Firebird piece. Cindercoat is a viable option with Meteor Shower replacing Hydra. Results may be more inconsistent than Furnace, but fits players who prefer faster playstyles.
Devastator + Firebird's Eye - Same thing; frees up a Firebird piece and allows you to run Cindercoat.
In general, your order of choices would be:
1. Furnace
2b. Sunkeeper + Firebird's Eye
2b. Serpent's Sparker + Firebird's Eye
3. Devastator + Firebird's Eye
The reason is because a good chunk of your 15 minutes of allotted time in the Greater Rift would be against the Rift Guardian. As a result, you really want to prioritize elite damage. If you don't have a Furnace, use a Sunkeeper. Go down the list until you reach a Devastator, which can be crafted with relative ease.
If you don't have an ancient Furnace, however, go with ancient one-handed weapons if you have an ancient Firebird's Eye. Based on my experiences, it's still worthwhile to use a non-ancient Furnace over an ancient one-hander without the ancient source. Again, this is because of elite bonuses. If you decide to run an ancient one-hander over a non-ancient Furnace, you'll gain kill speed against regular mobs, but lose DPS against elites.
However, all that said, in 2.1.2 it's arguable that Devastator could be preferable over a Sunkeeper because of the drastic increase in trash density. Because the majority of the progress you get in a Rift will be from trash, you may want to prioritize your base fire damage. You'll gain time throughout the Rift fighting trash, but you'll lose time against the Rift Guardian. Think carefully about what you have more trouble with and pick your weapon.
GEMS:
Zei's Stone of Vengeance: Dynamically updates all DoT damage the further you are away from the affected target. Fantastic against the RG.
Gem of Efficacious Toxin: DoT damage is nice, debuff is even better as Firebird's secondary DoT double-dips into it. Moar damage.
Bane of the Trapped: Bonus damage triggers as long as the target is under crowd control (you don't necessarily have to be the one doing the CC). Works on RGs (main perk).
Follower Spec (Templar): http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/follower#0101
Just pick heals (Heal, Guardian) and crowd control (Intimidate, Charge).
Follower Main Gear (Templar):
Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker - Thunderfury's periodic proc provides fantastic AOE crowd control. This is the main way to trigger Bane of the Trapped on multiple targets.
Enchanting Favor - Used in combination with a second Unity in order to grant permanent 50% bonus mitigation
Follower Optional Gear:
Freeze of Deflection - Extra CC opportunities
Oculus Ring - More APS for the follower means more CC.
Ess of Johan - More CC, great for helping set up targets; can sometimes get you killed if the Templar pulls mobs in onto you
Legacy Star of Azkaranth - No longer available as a drop, but for vanilla players, the amulet comes with a chance for CC.
Legacy Puzzle Ring - No longer available as a drop, but vanilla players, the goblin spawn can trigger at least once per Rift run. If killed, it provides a hefty amount of progress (that's if you can kill it)
GEAR RECAP:
Plan A:
Helm: Firebird's Plume
Shoulder: Firebird's Pinions
Chest: Firebird's Breast
Gloves: Firebird's Talons
Pants: Firebird's Down
Boots: Firebird's Tarsi
Bracers: Strongarm Bracers
Belt: The Witching Hour
Amulet: anything with fire bonus/CHC/CHD/socket or intelligence in place of fire if you don't have the choice
Ring 1: Stone of Jordan
Ring 2: Unity
Weapon: The Furnace
Plan B:
Helm: Firebird's Plume
Shoulder: Firebird's Pinions
Chest: Cindercoat/Firebird's Breast (if using Serpent's Sparker)
Gloves: Firebird's Talons/Tasker and Theo (if using Serpent's Sparker)
Pants: Firebird's Down
Boots: Firebird's Tarsi
Bracers: Strongarm Bracers
Belt: The Witching Hour
Amulet: anything with fire bonus/CHC/CHD/socket or intelligence in place of fire if you don't have the choice
Ring 1: Stone of Jordan
Ring 2: Unity
Weapon: Sunkeeper/Serpent's Sparker/Devastator
Off-hand: Firebird's Eye
GAMEPLAY
Firebird's for high Greater Rifts takes a lot of practice and isn't exactly easy to master. It requires a keen sense of positioning and involves quick reaction times. The faster you can adjust to the situation and your surroundings, the better you will fare. No exaggeration. You have to constantly make decisions throughout the entire Rift from beginning to end.
All serious GR attempts follow a system similar to driving on the road. It involves repeating three phases over and over and over again:
Phase 1: Scanning
Phase 2: Predicting
Phase 3: Reacting
In Phase 1, you will be scanning your surroundings. In terms of GRs, you will be constantly checking the minimap and your character's immediate vicinity for enemies and patterns. In addition, checking on the progress bar for how much time you have remaining is important. You have to factor in the time it'll take you to down the RG. As soon as you get an idea of what type of tileset you're in (e.g. Caverns tileset, Keeps tileset, Sewers tileset, etc.) and what mob combination populates the Rift level, you move on to Phase 2.
In Phase 2, you will be predicting the best and worst outcomes for the current Rift level. Based on the mob types and the level tileset, you have to decide whether to attempt to trigger Firebird's on the enemies you encounter or skip them. For low density levels in long, intricate map layouts (e.g. levels that resemble Act II's Sirocco Caverns), you may have to decide to speed through it to get to the next level rather than waste time picking off the occasional enemy. Depending on how any of these levels roll, you move on to Phase 3.
In Phase 3, you react to situations based on your predictions in Phase 2. This is where players adapt. Sometimes things will go as planned (density is exactly what you expected), sometimes not (encounter mob types you did not expect, hit a dead end, etc.).
As of Patch 2.1.2, changes to monster compositions, density, map layouts, and Pylons have made Greater Rift attempts far easier than it has ever been before. The roadblocks are the same, though, as you will eventually hit a DPS wall and will no longer be able to progress due to gear limitations. The ceiling is simply higher than pre-2.1.2 days.
In terms of actually playing the GR Firebird build, you need to develop some good habits. The first is to remember to move forward as much as you can, rather than kite in circles, or worse, backward. Walking through empty levels is the worst for GR progression. You always want to have something to kill. As a result, when you find clusters of mobs, you want to be able to "herd" them toward other mobs you come across deeper in the Rift level.
In Patch 2.1.2, mob density has been increased to the point where kiting forward incessantly can easily overwhelm you and get you killed. As a result, you have to be fully aware of your character's limitations. As soon as you reach a threshold where you feel you're out of space and a single misstep will guarantee death, you need to take a step back and whittle down the enemies around you in order to create space. Positioning is always key and if you have no space for optimal positioning, you're asking for a lot of trouble.
Example scenario: You see a cluster of Lacuni Slashers, Fallen Masters, and Fallen Soldiers in front of you. Instead of casting Black Hole and Apocalypse on them and then running in circles while the DoTs kill them, you need to aggro them with Apocalypse while moving ahead of them, all while covering the path in front of you with additional casts of Apocalypse. This will keep the DoT on the targets while also maintaining the aggro necessary for the mobs to follow you. In some cases, you will have to move in a zigzag route for slow mobs that have a difficult time keeping up, such as skeletons and zombies.
However, if you're in a situation where you find massive clusters of mobs ahead of you with more incoming from behind, you must pull the mobs in front toward you and combine them with the ones you herded from behind. Combining clusters of mobs and then whittling their numbers down before progressing is a decision you have to make. Investing some seconds to conservatively build up progress, speeding ahead with greed to obtain more progress, or speeding ahead and get overwhelmed by sheer numbers, can be the difference in making or breaking your Rift attempt.
The same herding concept applies to elites. You do not want to sit around waiting for elites to die. In higher GR levels, e.g. 40+, elites regularly have several billion HP. Even if you are dishing out 500M eDPS on elites, it'll take time for them to die, and that's assuming they do not have deadly affixes you need to avoid.
You will set up with Apocalypse to aggro the elites, much like you would for regular mobs. While the elites are within Apocalypse's AOE and under CC effects from your Templar, gather them up with Black Hole and set up Mammoth Hydra AHEAD of them. Remember, you always want to try and go forward, not backward. By the time Apocalypse ticks away, Black Hole nuked and debuffed the elites, and Hydra attacked a couple of times, you will start leapfrogging both Apocalypse and Hydra while moving ahead of the elites. The infinite DoT from Firebird's should have kicked in if you managed to land all your fire spells. If not, the sequence must be repeated, again, all while moving forward.
In the best situations, while moving forward, you will be able to herd multiple elite packs together. The more targets you combine, the more you can utilize area damage for Apocalypse (Firebird's DoT and Hydra attacks do not benefit from area damage) and Black Hole can help cluster multiple high priority targets together. In addition, more threats to hit you allows you to spam Teleport more often to get yourself in a better position.
To repeat, remember despite always wanting to progress forward, there will be instances where you obviously cannot do that. At some point, you will be aggroing and herding up mobs faster than you can kill all of them. In those situations, it's necessary to just bear down and make sure a good number of them die before you continue on. Many players end up dying simply because of being overwhelmed.
There are also specific types of enemies that you should not attempt to herd. These include Winged Assassins, Lacuni Huntresses, Burrowing Leapers, and their kin. These types of enemies will more than likely always outrun you unless you attempt to spam Teleport beyond their aggro range (which would mean you're not going to be killing them with the DoTs anyway). So if you end up with an elite pack of Winged Assassins, you have two choices. Deal with them on the spot by tanking the best you can and running in circles, or Teleport as far away as possible and skip them if you think you're going to end up dying to them. Granted, trying to skip them could put you in the "overwhelmed" situation if more mobs of the same type are located ahead.
TIPS & TRICKS
1. If your goal is to place as high on the leaderboard as possible and you have a lot of time on your hands, you can "cheat" a little by gathering up a group of DHs + zDPS crusader to speed farm Trial Rifts. It is incredibly easy to pick up GR40+ keys by doing this. While it is pretty lame, you can binge on these keys by opening GR after GR, picking your map layouts and mob types until you get the one you think you can clear. Doesn't always work, but by skipping the maps and mobs you think will cause you more of a headache, you save time.
2. Always clear maps that are filled with high progress-to-effort ratio mobs. Basically, these enemies provide a lot of progress for little effort. Example mobs include:
- Moon Clan Ghosts, Warriors, and related - 0.3% per kill
- Dust Eaters, Grotesques, Lacuni Warriors - 0.5% per kill
- Disentombed Hulks - 1.25% per kill
For a longer list: http://www.forum.vizjereiclan.com/index.php?/topic/241-greater-rift-progression-data/
3. On the other hand, skip the ones with low progress-to-effort ratios. Basically these are mobs that either take too long to kill for their progress or offer little to no progress at all. If you try to herd them and kill them, you're going to be wasting a lot of time. However, there are low progress mobs that may be in your best interest to kill alongside others, such as Skeletal Archers, as the more you end up herding, the more they can become major headaches.
4. When fighting a Rift Guardian, try to kite it to narrow corridors or corners with doors so your Templar can block it, allowing you to move into blind spots outside aggro range. This will allow you to place your Hydra and for you to stand at max distance to get the most out of Zei's, and also allow you to freely cast your Apocalypse and Blazars for guaranteed hits. However, the Templar will be stupid and run to your side if you move too far away, so be careful.
5. Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice!
Credentials: Completed GR49
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Two things:
1) Does Bane of the Trapped not trigger itself via its lvl25 debuff? Or do you mention other CCs because you intend to be further away from the mobs?
2) About Elemental Exposure: You might replace "non-fire-weapon" with "cold, arcane or lightning weapon", because there are several other useless damage types.
edit: Blue post regarding Bane of the Trapped:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/14058726299
It's intended to proc itself. Doesn't say if it works, though
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Sol77-2972/hero/66110450
You can check the information here: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/14058607023
Basically Bane of the Powerful is in the same category as regular dmg % increase buffs, which means it gets less valuable the more you have from other sources (skills, items, etc.), while Band of the Trapped is in it's own category, so it scales better.
Same reasoning for 20% Fire dmg. It's only 20% if you have no % Fire dmg at all on gear, but if you already have 80% Fire dmg for example, it's only a 11% increase.
Very good info @Kissmyaxe on BotT -- I didn't know it was a separate buff category. I'm still thinking for my gear BotP might be better, if not for the always-on 20% general damage buff then for the +elite damage since I'm not rocking a Furnace yet and my +elite is limited to Sun Keeper and Unity.
"For low density levels in long, intricate map layouts (e.g. levels that resemble Act II's Sirocco Caverns), you may have to decide to speed through it to get to the next level rather than waste time picking off the occasional enemy."
I have been using Wormhole for exactly this reason. I wish I had Safe Passage in certain situations, as near-deaths (UA / 4-piece) cause me to play a fair bit more conservatively, but I had found myself failing higher rifts most frequently by getting stuck on some long, useless map with terrible spawns (Winged, Exarchs, Shamans, etc.). Being able to tele-tele, get hit, tele-tele, get hit, etc. I can get off a bad map very quickly and salvage the run.
From my experience (GR38 -- needs that Furnace!), I tend to prefer Mirror Image - Duplicates over Hydra. Maybe that sounds blasphemous, but the gains of MI are many:
Re #2 -- at higher and higher GR, mobs and especially elites and RGs have ridiculous amounts of HP - to the extent that the time and damage dealt prior to Firebird DoT capping is generally a minor % of the total kill. So what really matters for kill speed is what things look like once the DoT is capped.
Take an RG fight for example (one that doesn't have the ability to clear the DoT). From the moment the DoT is up, until they die, they're taking 3000% weapon damage every second. If you had enough time (3-4 minutes), you could literally teleport to the other side of the map, back and forth, over and over, and just let the RG die on its own trying to chase you without ever interacting with it again (all the while Zei's stays at maximum effect). For harder RGs, this may be preferable to trying to kite just off screen and being subject to teleports / leaps / charges / etc., though I tend to prefer at least leaving Apocalypse trails up to keep poison dot and debuff active.
So what does Hydra contribute to this situation? The RG is already taking 3000% / sec from Firebird and about 180% from Apocalypse. So Hydra's 400% add, even at 100% uptime is (and we're roughing here) a 12.5% kill acceleration. But now you're talking potentially allowing the RG to close distance (walking or otherwise), which could mean escape time and also temporarily suppresses your Zei's buff. The only time you're really going to get that maximal value is if the RG gets stuck or if you can body block with Templar in a doorway and it can't / won't teleport.
Maybe I'm devaluing Hydra too much or wrong in various assumptions, and I'd love to hear some arguments in its defense, but I can't shake the outcome I've seen in my trial runs whereby swapping Hydra for MI was hands-down a time saver.
Once you get the infinite DoT on elites, the work is just herding them around and adding passive supplementary damage while you kill other things and try to stay alive.
Bane of the Trapped is multiplicative, which is the best bonus you want. Nothing will come close. With a Templar you have perma-CC on any target he hits. BoT upgrades the damage a target takes so it will provide more damage than BoP, hands down, it's not even an argument between the two gems.
As long as the debuff is there when Firebird's DoTs kick in, it will be snapshot in for the remainder of the DoT's duration. The Templar can provide all the CC you need. And when you truly need the extra DPS, i.e. against the RG, it's guaranteed that you will get the BoT bonus whereas you will not necessary have BoP.
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2. If you cannot ramp up the damage fast enough while a debuff is applied, you're screwed because Firebird's DoT cannot be overwritten.
3. You cannot kite over a fixed distance or else the infinite DoT will fall off and you have to reset everything (see #2).
4. Mirror Image = defense. You're going to get to GR40-42 and your problem will be kill time, not defense, especially if you run Safe Passage/String of Ears.
5. Mirror Image also interrupts your herding capabilities by holding back mobs that are supposed to follow you. It's counterintuitive to the core gameplay of Firebird. The only instance it'll come in handy is if you're intentionally trying to abandon content.
6. Hydra positioning just involves placing it a distance away from the target to maximize Zei's output. That's all. It's incredibly easy to set up, the trail stacks on top of one another, and you can also recast Hydra to bypass its APS.
Fore Re#2 you just contradicted yourself for the whole argument against Hydra. If the RG is taking X damage already, your goal is to stack as much extra damage on top of that in as little time as possible. Mirror Image does absolutely nothing in that regard.
Your goal is to hit the infinite DoT ASAP and Hydra helps that case. Your goal after that is to tack on as much damage as possible and Hydra does that, even better than Molten Impact, which is another popular choice (more for T6 because of its long CD). Hydra's DoT is duplicated by the initial Firebird DoT, and while the Hydra DoTs stack, so too do the Firebird secondary DoTs, all while taking into account the infinite DoT that triggers. All of these DoTs are also amplified by any debuffs you apply to the target. None of these perks apply to Mirror Image.
With the initial fire DoTs you apply via spells (Blizzard/Hydra), secondary and infinite Firebird DoTs in effect, with any debuffs applied, it's easy to see 200-300M ticks of combined damage while running solo. In group play, e.g. with a monk/WD, damage can scale over 1 billion per 0.8 seconds with Blizzard/Hydra (optimal conditions).
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I'm still not certain of trapped is better than powerful. You are essentially relying on your follower's thunderfury proc to keep it the bonus up (the single target cold applied by weapon damage type is insiginificant to me since its only one target). I do realize that trapped provides a bigger damage boost but I'm not sure if its up time is high enough to beat out powerful.
If there's any argument for BoP, it's in place of the Toxin gem. It is possible to snapshot the 20% additive bonus prior to triggering the infinite DoT on a RG, but that's assuming you have a high level one that gives you enough time to engage a RG after killing an elite.
Also, as for CC, that's why you run Intimidate on a Templar because any target that he hits and any target that hits him will be slowed. When he uses Charge/Guardian, he deals AOE damage and slows everything on contact.
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Snapshotting Bane of the Trapped is one of the key distinctions. I run BotP instead, in part because of the +15% elite damage since my elite damage is low from lack of Furnace. I do see the risk that you trigger RG and aren't able to snapshot before buff falls off -- happened a few times with great displeasure.
I think I also wrote off BotT for lack of crowd control, for two reasons that were just dumb. At first was not realizing it didn't need to be MY crowd control, and thus Templar-Thunderfury would do the trick. So I started doing that, but was noticing that CC was not being entirely reliable while clearing (but had full uptime on RG). In short, I was completely overlooking Intimidate.
You're right that MI doesn't help with killing RG, but it was helping me reach RG considerably faster and consistent in not dying/failing completely. The gap was greater than what I was gaining in kill speed on RG by using Hydra, so I've stuck with it.
I will give it a whirl with Bane of the Trapped, Safe Passage, and Hydra and see if I can't crack 40 tonight.
The one thing I wanted to add though is why so little consideration or discussion for Teleport - Fracture? My highest clear is GR40 and between string/eye/unity/blur, everything that's not a ground DoT is still capped by Force Armor (ie; reduction feels useless). I understand Safe Passage is good for ground DoTs but if that's its only purpose isn't it a bit wasteful? I can't make any claims for Fracture, but both of my record clears (38 & 40) were when I was using it over Safe Passage.
I'd like to know this as well because I have a pretty much perfect Maximus that I already gifted for testing purposes on Azmodan. It failed dps time compared to my 2300/29% Sunkeeper (purposefully discounting the chain which can only be reliably controlled on RG, so I may reconsider it).
In regards to passives, I noticed nobody else really considers alternatives too well so last week when I was doing extensive Azmodan dps tests I tried out glass cannon vs exposure vs conflag and found that exposure moved me up 1 second faster. I assumed this was because I was using FB orb (due to no furnace) and was severely over-crit %, devaluing conflag. Aside that point, glass cannon actually equalled the kill time of conflag and also failed to exposure. Why would this skill ever be considered accounting for its terrible drawback?
http://i.imgur.com/1gAhgGy.jpg
http://www.twitch.tv/popsecret
Would it also be a good idea to put in Wreath of Lightning on my follower to add more elemental exposure? Does that work? I am using fire spells and cold damage on my serpent sparker for 10% extra damage.
Top 10 Solo Wizard Leaderboard - North America
Highest: Rank 6 // Greater Rift 42 12m40s
My furnace has fire dmg on it. Does it not procc the EE or what does this mean?
@DontUseMyName: Of course it triggers it, but you only have fire spells . thats only 5 percent
if you had any damagetype on your weapon but not fire you would gain 5% from that and 5% from your fire spells . thats a guaranteed 10% on every target (guarnteed means : 100% uptime)
I have a questions to ask Jaetch (and anybody else of course).
What gem to put in helm in combination with evocation? (you're missing that in your guide)
DIamong + Evocation
Amethyst + Evocation
From were i stand , having evocation only for blackhole seems a little bit wasted (it would be an awesome passive on a hellfire amulet though)
so put up a diamond in helm ? - its like 20 vs 31% cdr
Would you even stack cooldownreduction on gear if you chose to use evocation?
At the moment im in favour of glasscannon (instead of evocation) + force armor because it makes sense, as long as the -10% all res does not take you in the area where you take more damage as your maximum hp.so you get one shotted. It has a somewhat synergy.
Here's the screenshot of the kill (No single buff from pylon or shrine were used)
http://i.imgur.com/1gAhgGy.jpg
ps. 1 more tip when the rift boss is stuck , u should drop all of your paragon movespeed and put them into int for more dps
ps2. sunkeeper was used on this kill (no furnace for me yet )
http://i.imgur.com/1gAhgGy.jpg
http://www.twitch.tv/popsecret
Basically, kite elite pack forward into another pack, pop Archon and watch the buff stack to 15-20+ within seconds from the kited trash and elite dying off. That makes crushing the new elite pack / trash a breeze - the FB DoT alone is vicious with buff. With Evocation and a touch of CDR on gear the CD isn't bad, and I found it a good balance of kite-kite-kite-bigwipe-kite-kite-kite. Comes in handy as "oh *@)!" button or when low on AP. Biggest problem is no Teleport for duration, but things died so quickly even on high 30s GRs it wasn't a problem.
Makes me want to swap some pieces around to don my 15-second Swami, getting a mini Power Pylon every 90 seconds or so.
Boy, was I doing it wrong.