DiabloFans

Build Guide

Meteors rain from the sky in this build. We use the Tal6 and Tal4 bonuses to gain both damage and defense. The main damage method is to channel, which will proc etched sigil meteors. We also interweave manual casting of meteor in between ES procs (take note of the rotation below). Make sure you are holding down channeling, lest you risk dropping your Deathwish, Etched Sigil, and Taeguk bonuses.

For defense, you'll need to make sure you're positioned for increased DR from the Halo of Karini Storm armor attacks. Since the idea with this build is to deal damage up close, just make sure your Karini is being applied before engaging up close, and if necessary, teleport away to regain this bonus. Most of the time you will be killing quick enough that this is not an issue.

We also have Aquila, and many means of Resource management to support it: RCR, APoC, and even MW:Conduit. Ensure you have +Max AP on source and from paragon, as this increases the amount of AP buffer you have until Aquila will drop off.

Keep in mind your Nilfur's Boast Boots to deal quite a bit of increased damage to targets that are singled out.

In order to be able to face elites in this manner, we've placed some additional defense in the build. Unity makes an appearance, granting 50% DR (assuming follower and follower token). If you intend to swap out Unity, you can opt for Stone of Jordan for offense, go for a shielding setup with ABBs, deflection and Galvanizing ward for defense. For more detail on these swaps see the alternates section below.

We also use Blur to our advantage, with Illusionist assisting with mobility. Scramble gives increased movement after taking hits, another nice bonus.

Multipliers Audacity and Trapped give us more damage when up close. The Grand Vizier in the cube is one of our other multipliers, but it also happens to help save AP on manual casting of Meteor.

Invigorating Gemstone provides us with some huge CC immunity. This allows you to channel and benefit from the multipliers of DW and ES without interruption. This bonus is very nice. Prevents knockback, vortex, nightmarish, frozen, and more. While you could opt for Krelm's buff bracers instead here, these take up an armor slot, which would seriously compromise the defense. Note however, wormhole still affects your character, even with the cc immunity.

Note: while the video still shows slotting Powerful gem, I have since swapped to using the invigorating gemstone, and it is much smoother. As also noted in the affixes section, you can always roll 3-4 %CC resist affix secondaries on gear, and get almost the same effect. Not including this as the base recommendation, as these are hard to get on ancient items.

Unity worn gives 15% elite damage, and a hefty 50% DR with follower Unity and token. UA fits great as the second life passive.

MW:Mists can be kept on autocast to help proc Tal6. Use numlock or scripting. I found that casting a manual meteor might be required every now and again if you find yourself running through a semi-empty rift.

Oculus Ring, Unity, Enchanting Favor for your follower. Templar is preferred for the increased regen, and healing. You can also opt for the templar's Intimidate ability, this would help proc trapped at range. Make sure your follower uses Thunderfuy, as this weapon slows, and would also proc trapped.

-----

Etched Sigil AS Breakpoint:

Etched Sigil was bug fixed on the PTR. Its' ICD is now approximately 60 frames (1 second) as the item tooltip indicates. However, you need to stay in certain attack speed breakpoints to get as close to this ICD as possible, and subsequently proc etched sigil as fast as possible. See this link for the full breakpoint chart. The breakpoint we are looking to hit for AT:SD is:

• 1.538462538 AS to 1.666666667 AS or 12 Frames / Tick

This breakpoint is easy enough to hit. All you need to do is max out your attack speed in paragon. This will give you exactly 1.54 AS on sheet. If you happen to get stuck with an AS roll on weapon, don't fret, you can stay within this breakpoint even with an additional (unwanted) AS roll on weapon.

-----

Meteor Shower Cast Rotation. Yes. You will want to manually cast meteor, even on a channeling build. This will bring down more meteors over time, and since we can channel during those impacts, this will bring more damage to the table than just channeling. However, you only want to manually cast meteor about once every 3 seconds.

Why 3 seconds? I timed both manually casting meteor shower and using meteor shower in combination with Etched Sigil + Arcane torrent.

• Manually casted meteor took 138 to 141 frames to have all 7 meteors impact from the initial time of cast.
• Channeled + manually cast meteor took 155 to 176 frames to have all 14 meteors impact from the initial time of cast.

Since 60 frames is equivalent to 1 second of game time, and 180 frames is 3 seconds, this puts the rotation for manually casting in between our channeled abillity at about once every 3 seconds.

Rotation:

1. Channel.
2. Immediately manually cast meteor.
3. Continue holding down your channeling ability.
4. Note that ES will continue to proc every second while holding down channeling.
5. Wait until Meteors from both your initial ES proc and your manual cast finish impacting.
6. Decide if you can stand and continue dpsing, or if you need to move your character (either dodge attacks, grouping, or for oculus) at this point.
7. Rinse and repeat.

Note that manually casting a second time (before 3 seconds have passed) will likely decrease your overall damage, as you wouldn't be benefiting from the multipliers of DW + ES as often during your meteor impacts. This is why it is very important to not manually cast too often either.

-----

Alternates:

• Power of the Storm: Allows better resource, and possibly can slot Amethyst in helm with this swap for higher toughness.
• Astral Presence: If you are still having issues with resource after considering all the recommendations in the guide, consider using Astral presence in place of Audacity. This would lower damage a tad, but would offer higher uptime on Aquila.
• Bane of the Powerful: While i feel immunity to cc (from Invigorating Gemstone) is superior to the multiplier from Powerful here, you can opt for Powerful, especially if you're grouping with a barb or monk, someone else who could provide you with cc immunity. Also, with high %CC resistance on gear, you can get by without having the CC immunity, and slot the extra multiplier and elite damage and reduction from Powerful instead.
• Krelm's Buff Bracer: While this swap decreases defense, If you prefer to use the third gem slot, and also don't have any other group members to provide such a bonus, can be a good placement in the cube, or worn, with cubing nems. I much prefer using the Invigorating gemstone though. Can either replace Aquila or swap out Unity for RoRG, and wear Aquila, with this swap.
• Ray of Frost - Cold Blood: Alternate rune to FN:Mists. Also a channeling ability, so should also proc your ES, however, I found it easier to keep up Tal6 with the FN:Mists variation. Note also that if you intend to use this ability as your main spender, you need to take a look at the Etched sigil breakpoint chart linked above, as Ray of Frost requires different breakpoints than Arcane Torrent.
• Deflection: as a standalone rune, you can go for deflection instead of conduit for some small level of shielding / recovery while attacking. This swap will require Topaz in helm as well as shoulder roll, and will also require you keep an eye on resource more often, but it's still possible to keep up Aquila in most situations with this setup.

Swaps for Unity:

• RoRG + Endless Walk: Great damage multiplier, a good alternate for group. Less defensive in general though. Thanks to Tinne for the suggestion. Note that this swap would probably only be made in group with a support, as this is a significant toughness loss. Drop CoE in addition to Unity.
• Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer + Galvanizing Ward + Deflection + RCR on both shoulder and Topaz in helm: Best defensive swap. Cube or wear ABBs. Swap out blur. Use the rune Power of the Storm for reduced AP costs.