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Removing the sticky here as I don't intend on updating this from Patch 2.2 onward.

Quote from Kyparn»

Can you please elaborate why you go with % hydra damage on your Cindercoat?


Edit: My assumption would be that you need all the DPS you can get and loosing some toughness is worth it in this case.

All DPS or take your inevitable fail.

At high levels you're going to get 3-shot through Force Armor at some point. No use stacking more defensive stats. Even if you go all defense mode and survive through an entire Rift, you're still going to fail if you can't kill anything in a timely manner.

Unless, of course, you plan on cheesing your way through by fishing for easy mobs and an early snapshot, but that's hardly consistent.

Added gameplay video using Serpent's Sparker to clear GR45:

I ought to make a note that Mammoth Hydra just has a knack for killing frame rate.

Chain is unreliable, does not have 100% uptime, sword's APS does not affect Firebird DoT, you lose raw stats from one-hand + source combo (either lots of fire bonus using Devastator or elite damage using Sunkeeper), lose Cindercoat unless you use RoRG, which would then mean losing SOJ or Unity (recipe for utter disaster).

Maximus is like the last resort item when you have absolutely nothing else to use, which is pretty much never because you can at least craft a Devastator and likely gamble a Firebird's Eye before you gamble an ancient Maximus.

It's good for T6, though, and makes a good fashion statement if nothing else.

Sunkeeper will out-DPS a Devastator against elites and Devastator will out-DPS a Sunkeeper against trash mobs.

Take your pick.

Quote from Arkhchance

Hi Jaetch, how long did it take you to kill RG @ 47 without power pylon snapshot ?

Let's see... I spawned Blighter on my 47 clear with about 6.5 minutes remaining.

I cleared the Rift in 13:41, so that'd be a little over 5 minutes spent on the RG. I'd probably have killed it faster had there been choke points for me to use to trap the RG in place, but the majority of the fight I was kiting to find a better position.

My 46 clears usually took around 4-4.5 minutes to kill the RG. Snapshotted Power Pylon usually brings the kill time to around 1.5-2 minutes.

Well, I just cleared GR47 without snapshotting anything so at least that's reassuring.

But I managed to successfully snapshot a Power Pylon again in the attempt before that.

It's a strange mechanic that I cannot explain. You change your stats, e.g. your offensive sheet stats (a la Harrington or Power Pylon), your Firebird DoTs get changed and when you change your other stats while the buff is active, it gets locked in somehow ("snapshot" effect). So even after the buff wears off, your Firebird DoTs still continue to tick as if you have the buff. Think of a camera and how it locks in one particular moment.

Quote from RasAlgethi24»

^Holy crap, how are you getting such high ticks on the RG? Awesome job.

Snapshotted Power Pylon. First time I consciously tried to do it and succeeded.

Check the sequence starting around 9:02. Power Pylon grabbed, popped a potion (for some reason this is a catalyst). Firebird DoT is permanently increased barring changes in gear/stats. This is a known mechanic for Harrington Waistguard snapshotting. Same applies to Power Pylon. The #1 EU wizard has done this consistently in his clears.

How to maintain the snapshot and how to break it is still an ongoing research project.

Updated thread to 2.1.2 and added a new video showcasing GR45 in <11 minutes.

Well, I think that's why a lot of players I know are waiting on the Delsere set. Firebird is the cookie cutter spec now, but there are other options for T6, they're just not nearly as fast. I still try to put random sets together (like the last iteration of my Ninja Wizard) for fun.

Devs already confirmed that the goal is to improve on the underused sets (like adding 6-piece bonuses). For wizards those would be Tal's and Vyr's, so we'll see how those get adjusted in the future.

Quote from yuhanz»

dang it would have been even better if you passed him ( assuming that's him ) xD

Nah, I have three other clan mates in the Top 20 (can't see them on the list) who are also chasing GR43+. They're the ones joking that I was gonna get pushed out soon.

Quote from itirnitii»

Rank 9 so quickly. Guess I'll have to push harder. Grats Jaetch!

I fell from #6 to #10 in a month, so there was my excuse to start soloing again. The Top 50 or so normally don't move too much other than the same people leapfrogging each other once in a while. It'll be tough for anyone to top yours unless they go for GR43+. I did start to pressure my clan mates to hit Top 100 lately, so there's some movement there.

Clan mate threatened me that I was gonna get bumped out of Top 10, so I responded:

God I hate this quoting system.

Quote from GamanionAny tips to kill the RG faster? Had a few 39s with 3 minutes left bit cannot kill the RG..

I generally try to save 3-4 minutes for any RG. Stonesinger can be killed in 2 minutes or less. Saxtris, Orlash, Crusader King and Bone Warlock can take significantly more time because of the frequency of add spawns. In GR44-45, I need around 4-6 minutes to down a standard RG. It gets really rough. Conduit is the easy way out at those levels.

Death is not an option against RGs. You want to get into an optimal position where you can cut off their line of sight and get the Templar to block their pathing. When you manipulate line of sight and pathing, it can save you A LOT of trouble against RG affixes. That takes practice and some RNG with the Rift tile set. After that, it's just rinsing and repeating your spells to maintain a steady flow of damage. Never idle and watch the infinite DoT ticks.

Hmm, missed this.

Quote from GamanionThings started to go better but have few questions: which is the correct sequence to deal maximum damage with dot? Apocalypse, blazar slightly apart the target to "suck" it, hydra as far ahead to maximize zei's?

There's really no set sequence. You do want to make sure you have good coverage on Apocalypse casts. The thing to pay attention to is over-cast. Apocalypse without Cindercoat is very expensive, so over-casting it once on the same area (as overlap do not stack damage) can be pretty damn detrimental in the long run.

I usually have Apocalypse going behind me and ahead of me. Behind me to make sure mobs are continuously following me while I'm moving deeper into the Rift level. Ahead of me to aggro enemies ahead and merge them with the mobs behind me.

While the Apocalypse casts are doing their thing, I pick my moments to cast Blazar. I either cast them to round up large groups of trash mobs or prep elites in order to trigger Strongarm. Blazar can also be used defensively to pull things out of your way when Teleport is on cooldown. This takes a lot of practice. You want to save your bullets, but you also don't want to be too passive, which can lead to wasted time and missed opportunities.

Hydra also takes practice. You will find that you'll resummon Hydra a lot in order to maximize its distance to get the most out of Zei's. Double casting Hydra while Mammoth's trail of fire is in motion can also speed up trail DoT stacks. Generally not recommended until you're against a single target that doesn't move around too much.

Practice, practice.

No one caught my "Pick you poison" bit

I like my Mara's because of Poison Enchanted, Plague, bees, Heralds, Accursed, RGs like Blighter, Binder, Erethon, Choker and Voracity.

But yeah, any of the immunity amulets will help to some degree.