How to deal with reflect damage affix with high dps
"OK, listen the fcuk up!"
"You are going to dps very very slowly."
"And by slowly I mean fcuking slow"
...
"More dots, more dots"
....
"Watch the fcuking tail!"
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- Maxyim
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Jul 17, 2012
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shootingbull posted a message on How to deal with reflect damage affix with high dps ?Posted in: Wizard: The Ancient Repositories -
Jul 11, 20123
tanis0 posted a message on Global Warming Disproven? New Study Shows 2000 Yrs of Cooling!Posted in: Off-TopicQuote from BigEd781
It is just another data point which shows that no side really knows (and any competent scientist will say as much). Predicting weather /climate changes is hard. Really hard. So hard in fact that physicists snicker at the predictions made by climatologists and meteorologists because they are little more than guesses. The ability to correctly model climate changes is beyond our capability at this point in time, so all estimates are made using historical data and loose models that tend to return widely varying results with small input changes.
The fact that it is a political issue is a problem. It is no longer a purely scientific issue, so there is a lot of FUD thrown around by both sides. The fact is none of us are in any position to have an opinion on the matter (unless one of you are working on your PhD at the moment). We here things and we latch on to them, but we don't have the education or experience to disseminate that information and judge it critically, we just accept it (and its supposed consequences) as fact.
This. When I was working on my MS, I did some collaborative work with a Computational Science PHD who specialized in various physics-based simulations of weather phenomena, such as hurricane prediction models. We got to talking a bit about global climate change and while I went in knowing that I didn't really know anything, I quickly found out that I knew even less than I thought. For that matter, apparently nobody else knows much of anything either.
His argument was that there are a variety of ways to explain the data and there is no remotely definitive evidence that climate change is real, and beyond that, no definitive evidence that humans have a measurable effect on any climate change which might exist. That's not to say that it doesn't exist or the it's not man made, but merely that the models we have aren't very good. Anybody who guarantees you that climate change is provably real and man made or that it's provably not real or not man made is either wrong, lying to you or has some sort of definitive proof which they haven't made available to the rest of the scientific community.
This really shouldn't be a problem as this sort of thing happens all the time in science wherever there are various theories and no one can definitively prove one or another. The issue in this case is that politicians have decided to run with one heavily debated theory and to try to use it to affect social change for, imho, ideological and not scientific reasons. -
Jul 10, 20121
overneathe posted a message on Global Warming Disproven? New Study Shows 2000 Yrs of Cooling!Oh no, now us naysayers won't have anything to do anymore. :<Posted in: Off-Topic - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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Your fail #2 - posting about an exploit AFTER it has been hotfixed.
Now, enjoy the rest of your evening.
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K STOP DOTS!
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http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5979088098
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Re: Concerns of "30M Gear Costs"
I went from act 1 hell to main tank in act 3 inferno group farm (could semi-solo farm but just took too long and some packs were not doable without deaths) with total gear worth under 500k. At the time, my gear was something like this:
1) wand was 550 dps with LoH and AP on crit
2) shield with ~50 AR, 6% crit, no int/vit/extra armor
3) gloves with ~50 AR, 6ish% crit, some int/vit
4) helm with ~50 AR and 9 AP on crit, some int
5) LoH / IAS blue rings
6) some crappy amulet with some crit
7) rest of gear with ~50 AR and vit, a few had int and other stats
As you can see, not very impressive. My armor was in fact greater than my DPS; I had no crit damage bonus, only 22% crit, etc. However, I was still able to progress even vs extra health elites (some packs were just not possible though, namely extra health kiters with abilities that made it impossible to have high uptime).
Re: Act 3 and 4 Progression
A few hours ago, I was able to push through past Siegebreaker and kill Diablo. I borrowed a 900 dps weapon with LoH and zero AP on crit from a friend for the stretch up until Diablo (goal was to test the spec with less AP on crit), and managed the final kill because I dropped a few $$ on a better wand (750 DPS with crit damage bonus and only 220 LoH, still zero AP on crit) and a better shield (mine was just crap with 6% crit and zero int), as well as a source that I swapped to for the added deeps. Initially, I was nervous about the significantly smaller LoH and reduction in AP on crit, but my defenses were able to sustain it.
Observations on boss fights:
Azmodan - I swapped explosive blast for venom hydra, frost nova for time warp and cold blooded for glass cannon; reasoning is that time warp slows his attack animations therefore helping more than frost nova, and lack of EB resulting in more WW healing / CM spam (hydra also damages during the times where you have to run from the lava pools). Took a few tries to get him down; I also had to skip a lot of packs in crater (but some were just redic). Always tele to his other side once the fireball starts homing; saves a lot of damage.
Act 4 Progression, Rakanoth - I used blur as third passive and swapped explosive blast to time warp for the full duration as I was having so much trouble staying alive otherwise. Rakanoth in particular was a monster; I could not sustain extended durations of his melee even with all of this (does not help that he likes to jump around and out of WW). I finally got him after using the mirror images from fracture as always-there decoys; every time he swung at one it bought me that extra moment for DS to come back up. Izual I did not solo, so I don't have any insight.
Diablo - After a few deaths and different spec trials, some of this with a 100k dps DH in tow, I went and got the wand/shield upgrade and one-shot him solo with the standard spec (WW/EB). By far the most important thing is to save EVERYTHING for the clones when they pop in phase 2 (you can control when they spawn so be mindful), and then just make 3-4 laps around the whole room, teleporting away from Diablo when he comes back and letting him waste his angst on your fractures. For me, arcane orb by my clone was instakill thru DS. Also, kindly stay out of the soul cages and don't forget that frost nova stops the cast, but not the existing shadows. I could actually live thru the soul cage capture animation on a full health bar, but it literally brought me to 200 health so this is not a good idea. Finally, I found it worthwhile to teleport out of the big fireballs, and used teleport a lot in general to close distances with him whenever he saw a squirrel.
ORIGINAL POST AS FOLLOWS
Hey everyone,
I made a few posts on DiabloFans and in other threads on this forum on this issue, and wanted to take some time to put my thoughts together and see if the end result can help some more people.
First, please do take some time to read Sme's guide on melee wizards; this guy can be credited with pioneering the build. Also, do yourself a service and read through the 72 pages of posts, particularly the ones discussing Wicked Wind / EB and possible variants for different (usually higher) gear levels.
Sme's latest thread, with links to previous - http://us.battle.net...opic/5889160871
OK, let's get to the details.
SPEC - http://us.battle.net...YXhO!gWb!YYZacc
(alternate low-level spec: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#VQYXhO!gWb!YYZaaZ - swap in main line skills as they become available)
(god-level gear + pocket barb alternative: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#VWYXhT!gWb!Yacacc - right click can also be hydra, archon, etc)
L-Click: Energy Twister with Wicked Wind
This skill may as well be called Healing Wind; with respectable LPH and at least one target to hit, you can bring yourself to full life in moments if anything gets through your diamond skin. It also procs Critical Mass quite a good bit. Do yourself a favor and just hold your left click down on stuff; it will cast just fine once you have enough AP rather than the L-click spamfest that is driving your cat insane.
R-Click: Teleport with Fracture or Safe Passage
I have played with a few skills for this slot, but have found Teleport to be absolutely essential; there are just way too many mob affixes and types that will give you unnecessary problems without it (waller/jailer/vortex/nightmarish plus any kind of nasty arcane/molten/desecrator combination for starters, molok anything, other obnoxious kiters). Also, there is something beautiful about being able to teleport every few seconds with Critical Mass, and position yourself in the best possible location for CM / AP procs at any given point. With the Safe Passage rune, it is feasible to keep the 30% buff at a high uptime, however this does cut into your AP supply and tends to shift big boss mobs around (so they are no longer standing in your tornado storm); Fracture is just strong overall for the extra distraction component. Calamity, I do not recommend as the last thing you want to do as a melee wizard is to knock mobs all over the place.
Hotkey 1: Diamond Skin with Crystal Shell or Prism if you (vastly) outgear content.
Spam it; objective is for life orb to not move at all. Every time this icon lights up, it needs to be casted, because you never know what is going to happen in the next few seconds. Obviously, you can save your finger energy on white packs that are perma-rooted, but you get the idea...
Hotkey 2: Frost Nova with Cold Snap or Bone Chill if you (vastly) outgear content.
Spam it; objective is for stuff to move as little as possible for maximum WW uptime. At my unimpressive gear levels I am already able to pseudo-perma root elite packs. There is no reason not to cast Frost Nova when it is lit up. Note that, while Deep Freeze and Bone Chill are perfectly viable runes, I have found that Cold Snap is quite simply the best as it serves to further mitigate incoming damage and leverage your close-range abilities against annoying, fast kiters. Also, for the time being, Cold Snap means more Cold Blooded uptime.
Hotkey 3: Exposive Blast with Chain Reaction
This is the superior iteration of EB (although people just starting out should probably begin with Unleashed). For reasons, please see the discussion in Sme's threads. Purpose should be self-explanatory; you can generally spam it but be careful that you do not have more EB casts than WW as it does not proc LoH, CM and AP on Crit quite as reliably.
Hotkey 4: Force Armor with Prismatic
Also self-explanatory, armor and resists are your two main stats. You can try running with Pinpoint if your gear is weak and you have a barb friend for the shout, otherwise I do not recommend it. At higher gear levels, Storm Armor with Shocking Aspect is another option if you have the pocket barb. Keep this on at all times; I have died more to it wearing off than anything else, lol.
Passives: Critical Mass, Evocation, Cold Blooded
Cold Blooded is currently broken in that it boosts all damage (on targets frozen by nova, thank you resident moron for pointing out that I did not specifically say this), so this is a flat 20% increase to you most of the time. Evocation helps all of your skills, particularly Frost Nova for higher Cold Blooded uptime, etc. Once Cold Blooded is fixed, you can use Blur in conjunction with Storm Armor in groups with a barb, or Temporal Flux in general.
Other skills / runes to mix in for groups - bone chill on nova, time warp instead of teleport; safe passage teleport with the storm armor shocking aspect variant...a lot can work in a group, and this is probably the best usage of melee wizard to boot (particularly if you can get that yummy barb shout).
GEAR
Stat priority for melee wiz is as follows:
1) AP on Crit - at least 15 from weapon and helm; basically weapon must be a wand, otherwise you need to outgear content and use a source. UPDATE - I was able to make do with 9 AP on Crit from helm only after increasing DPS from 9k to 17k, meaning that it is OK to go for a higher DPS weapon once you are at a point where you are able to last but perhaps have trouble actually killing stuff; keep old weapon as backup just in case.
2 ) Life per hit - at least 800 to start, less is tolerable at higher gear levels, more is safer as long as you have the durability. Note that you basically have to get this on a weapon as other slots (jewelry) can't really roll with a lot. This means that you need a weapon with AP on Crit, Life per Hit and decent DPS (mine is 590, lol); anything else is high roller / good luck; search AH for these two stats and view downward from top DPS. UPDATE - I was able to make do with 400 LoH after increasing DPS from 9k to 17k, meaning that it is OK to go for a higher DPS weapon once you are at a point where you are able to last but perhaps have trouble actually killing stuff;keep old weapon as backup just in case.
3) Crit - important as it is only available on a few slots: gloves (a lot), helm and bracer (not a lot; I think 5% may be max on wizard hats or something), weapon (above stats more important), shield (same as gloves, a lot), and jewelry. Gloves with both IAS and crit are going to be expensive, so your practical solution is to get crit from gloves for this spec (not IAS). 20 is a good start, 30 is plenty.
4) All Resist and Armor - almost equally important to crit, and irreversibly linked together. You need a lot of AR and armor so every single piece should have 50% AR (affordable) and +armor as possible. At low budgets, this means that you will search for int / AR / crit (where possible) for each armor slot, sort downward by ARMOR RATING, and then look for other stats like vit and sort to increase/decrease Int and AR. You will want at least 800 AR and 6k armor after buffs to start; can stop resists at 1k but never stop focus on armor as it is more difficult to max (try to get the +bonus on each armor slot if you can; remember that a friendly barb boosts resists but not armor because enchantress gives almost as much solo).
5) Intelligence and Vitality - still important, but everything else comes before. I group these together as you will generally want both on armor (affordable along with AR); also on the gloves, helm and shield (your crit gear). The benefit of vitality is obvious; intelligence is more of a luxury but it's fairly affordable to search auctions for it because most wizzies are still buying up glass cannon gear; can get 140+ int pieces with armor, resists and vitality for good prices.
6) Critical Damage Bonus - this is actually the best way to increase DPS, but it is also a luxury stat that should only be picked up when possible. You have to develop your tank first; trust me 8k DPS is enough to clear extra health elites, and your actual DPS is much higher anyway due to the ability to spam.
7) IAS / damage / life % / skill bonuses / movement speed / MF / GF / other expensive shit - only as they do not interfere with the top 4 priorities. Exception is movement speed on boots; this is fairly cheap most of the time (look for boots with movement, AR and int/vit).
In summary, items you should try to procure in order to "unlock" this playstyle:
a) 700+ LoH / 8+ AP on crit / 550+ DPS wand with +crit damage if possible
c) 6%+ crit / 50+ AR / int / vit shield with +armor if possible
d) 7%+ crit / 50+ AR / int / vit gloves with +armor if possible
e) 150+ LoH rings and amulet with either crit or attack speed (preference on crit), AR, +armor and +crit damage if possible
f) For bracer, you may want to start out with 50+ AR / +armor / int / vit and take 3%+ crit only if you can get it cheap.
g) 50+ AR / +armor / int / vit on all "vanilla" slots that cannot contain DPS stats
All of this gear should be purchasable for 1-2M and a few dollars here and there; just have to get lucky with the moderate DPS LoH / AP on crit wand as there's not very many in circulation (I guess because people automatically vendor anything with <700 DPS?).
FACETANKING GHOM
I died a few times to him yesterday with my standard spec, then decided to mix in Venom Hydra and Time Warp (instead of tele and frost nova) and nailed him. I was able to facetank him in one spot and absorb all damage by both his fatass and his fatgas. The key is TO NOT LET YOUR PRISMATIC DROP! Only after the fact did I realize that this is why I died the first few times (because it took me that long with my low DPS to get his lifebar down); at the time I thought that his damage output got stronger and he was therefore not tankable for a long period.
Bottom line is to stand in ONE spot (do not move around, as he will move around and out of your WW) and just HOLD left-click on him, while SPAMMING THE HELL out of diamond skin and hitting EB only when your AP gets high. With my gear (1k resists, 6.5k armor, 1k LoH, 18 AP on crit, 21% crit), my lifebar cycled between 80-100% and never really dropped further. Missing a diamond skin because the fatass moved can be disastrous to your health, so just keep him in one spot. Note that if he starts moving a lot, you can move back yourself to trigger his slimes (yum more targets) which can help you out of a tight spot due to the additional procs; this is dangerous so keep a potion CD ready.
DEALING WITH OBNOXIOUS ELITES
Arcane vortex desecrator molten molok, anyone? Some combos are just not fair. Where possible, you actually want to be fighting all of the spawns at the same time, with at least the first 10-15 seconds spent surrounded by white mobs. Obviously, mobs that kite don't really agree with your strategy. If the bastards have just one or two ground target abilities (desecrator or arcane), then you can save your teleport for when one gets casted in a location where it will threaten you. If the bastards have ALL of the ground target abilities, you need to save your tele for vortex/jailer/waller/clusterfun. If the bastards are also kiters, you should probably evaluate the possibility of skipping them, as you can expect an enrage with your gear, and killing one does not help with the others as it gives you less procs of stuff.
On the plus side, most melee elites that do not have ALL of the ground target abilities plus obnoxious combo that leaves you subject to them, are for the most part
; just run into them and start your rotation. Even fire chains / molten can be handled with little problem if you can limit their movement and keep them in front of you (tele helps).
Please let me know if you have questions; I will check the thread periodically. For people linking stats, do us all a favor and share your LoH, AP on crit and crit; otherwise we have no idea how to help you.
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