Firebird Wizard

[Guest]

May I ask why the guide doesn't work for you romilly?

With this build you will manage at least GR 70 without a single ancient item, your damage while in archon form is just incredible.

(I had just an ancient weapon and cleard GR 80, since the weapon is the most important part GR 70 is a safe guess without any ancient item at all)

Your math is wrong btw, you are out of archon for approx. 50% of your time spent in the rift.

There are faster builds for low greater Rifts, a DH can clear GR 70 in a shorter time then Wizard. You will often hit the 5 - 6 minutes mark if the rift isn't favorable. But you manage way higher rifts with Wizard.

GR 100 is out of my reach, I doubt I'll get much past GR 90.  (Paragon below 1000.)

 

Give it a try, this build is truely awesom!

 

Soraph: Of course there are other builds besides archon. You should play your character the way you enjoy it. But every other build is way behind Firebird / Archon if you only look at the maximum GR Tier you can manage.

But where is the point in doing a GR 85 if you don't like the style? Way better to do GR 70 and enjoy yourself!

[Guest dat_noob_though]

Hi, 

First of all I have to say that the work done in the guide is truly amazing as always from Deadset. Thanks for that!

Im by no means a pro Diablo 3 player, thus forgive me the perhaps silly questions :)

1) I don't quite get how the Ancient Parthan Defenders contribute to this build as the build does not contain anything that would stun the enemies?

2) I don't have all the protective gear yet (missing The Compass Rose and Halo of Arlyse), but it seems that when I am outside of the archon form, Im constantly almost dying. I know the Compass Rose will most likely help me with this with the 50% dmg reduction while moving, but not sure if Im playing this build right. Should I try to simply survive while out of the archon form and once I have it out of cool down (which can feel like eternity from time to time :) just demolish everything that I see?

In overall I feel that I am really squishy when out of the archon form and that makes the build quite challenging to play.

[Guest Ohana]

10 hours ago, WedgeAntilles said:

 

With this build you will manage at least GR 70 without a single ancient item, your damage while in archon form is just incredible.

 

I'm curious, I know you want to fish for good grifts with mostly melee mobs but even in gtift 55 (t12) I get absolutely demolished by anything ranged with aquila travelers and parthan's all active. 2 spears is all it takes to proc both my cheat deaths and the 3rd will kill me. This is with my ice armor stacked at 3 too. If there are no ranged I'm usually kind of safe unless I get melee'd by 3 enemies at the same time which will still 1 shot me. Not exactly sure what I'm missing to survive. I have no ancients but I have the full firebirds with chantoto furnace aquila and halo of arlyse. Just hit p300 to attempt t12 but I thought I'd be a bit tankier than this.

[romilly 0]

@WedgeAntilles -- several other people have mentioned how unplayable this is without 50+ CDR, yet the guide barely focussed on this (I distinctly recall other Deadset builds that are very very clear about CDR importance). It also appears that you kind of need all the other items as well to consider this build. 

My experience with the build when I'd just obtained the 6 piece and the Chantos was really really painful. Sure it vaporized stuff for 20 seconds, and then I was just dancing around trying to stay alive for a minute (remember I had just gotten the gift and the Chantos). This was at T6.

By contrast, the flamethrower build (without Chantos & Archon) really rips through mobs at this level. Some combo of whatever drops you get seem to boost it (see the BRG section on compatible orbs/belts/bracers/weapons).

I guess my point is that I like many others (I'd suspect) came to find a gem-levelling/gearing build for our Haedrig's gift, and (AFAICT), this build isn't it. Which is fine - but either post a suitable build, or a link to one - and highlight this as an mid-to-end-game build.

I really don't mean to be disrespectful here - Deadset is my go-to guy for builds! 

 

UPDATE

Ok, so I owe Deadset/IcyVeins a huge apology here -  dug around, and I found this guide, which has a nice write up about how to use the Haedrig Gift set once you receive it. Ok - so my one plea would be -- on the Firebird guide, put a warning link that directs newbies to the appropriate section of the fresh-70 guide! 

https://www.icy-veins.com/d3/wizard-leveling-and-fresh-70-guide-season-9

 

Rom

 

Edited January 10, 2017 by romilly

[Guest]

15 hours ago, Guest dat_noob_though said:

Hi, 

First of all I have to say that the work done in the guide is truly amazing as always from Deadset. Thanks for that!

Im by no means a pro Diablo 3 player, thus forgive me the perhaps silly questions :)

1) I don't quite get how the Ancient Parthan Defenders contribute to this build as the build does not contain anything that would stun the enemies?

2) I don't have all the protective gear yet (missing The Compass Rose and Halo of Arlyse), but it seems that when I am outside of the archon form, Im constantly almost dying. I know the Compass Rose will most likely help me with this with the 50% dmg reduction while moving, but not sure if Im playing this build right. Should I try to simply survive while out of the archon form and once I have it out of cool down (which can feel like eternity from time to time :) just demolish everything that I see?

In overall I feel that I am really squishy when out of the archon form and that makes the build quite challenging to play.

 

1) Halo of Arlyse will trigger Ancient Parthan Defenders 

And you have Frost Nova , you can cast this if necessary

 

2) Without the two items you mentioned you lack tons of survivability. Both items are extremly important for higher rifts.

Generally speaken: Outside of archon-form you are way more vulnerable. That will never change. Your "duty" while outside of archonform: Stack your Chantodos to 20, get your Spectral Blade up, pull mobs as much as you can and hunt for your next elite-pack. Elitepacks are way more important then normal mobs. If you manage to pull some of them to an elite pack - perfect. If no, focuse on killing elites.

And don't forget to use Teleport Safe Passage

This grants you another 25% damage reduction.

 

I'm curious, I know you want to fish for good grifts with mostly melee mobs but even in gtift 55 (t12) I get absolutely demolished by anything ranged with aquila travelers and parthan's all active. 2 spears is all it takes to proc both my cheat deaths and the 3rd will kill me. This is with my ice armor stacked at 3 too. If there are no ranged I'm usually kind of safe unless I get melee'd by 3 enemies at the same time which will still 1 shot me. Not exactly sure what I'm missing to survive. I have no ancients but I have the full firebirds with chantoto furnace aquila and halo of arlyse. Just hit p300 to attempt t12 but I thought I'd be a bit tankier than this.

 

Mh, Paragon 300 is not that much. Could you link your character? You shouldn't have this many problems, even with no ancients GR 55 shouldn't be a problem.

Range damage is definitly way more dangerous then melee. You need to avoid as much of the spears as possible - and don't forget the teleport!

 

 

[Guest Ohana]

6 hours ago, WedgeAntilles said:

 

Mh, Paragon 300 is not that much. Could you link your character? You shouldn't have this many problems, even with no ancients GR 55 shouldn't be a problem.

Range damage is definitly way more dangerous then melee. You need to avoid as much of the spears as possible - and don't forget the teleport!

 

 

Hello, I ended up switching to an explosive blast with orb of depth build and survivability seemed way better. It's quite possible I was just playing it wrong though. First wizard I've ever played.

[Guest dat_noob_though]

@WedgeAntilles Ah! I was not aware that Frost Nova was counted as a stun. Then that makes sense! Thanks!

[Guest xNeoshadowx]

So i have a few questions about this build as I am currently using it for the new season and working with my first wizard. Currently got boosted to a lil over 300 Paragon, I have all the items except Furnace for cube and Compass rose (currently using arcane immunity for my amulet instead of travelers pledge) and i have socketed Bane of the Powerful into my Halo of Arlyse, but have yet to socket Bane of the Trapped and Bane of the Stricken. Oh and im using nemesis bracers instead since i like having more elites to play with.

So first things first, would those two legendarys really buff my non-archon damage to be able to at least handle big mobs of trash whilst waiting the eternity it takes to go into archon again plus farming stacks? Considering i'm literally just sitting there twiddling my thumbs once i get the stacks and find the next elite. 

 

Second is more personal observation as i've run the numbers as Romilly did and found (with diminishing CDR returns of course) that 'IF' you got to 60% CDR, somehow, it still takes a minute of rotation from one archon activation to the next, how is this considered viable as Archon's 20 seconds of fame is your only source of real damage (even with movement speed maxed in paragon you cant move that far as the archon) and once your on that 40-48second wait time your literally relying solely on the tank stats that still gives you that Achilles heel considering your weakness is projectiles? 

 

Third, Any alternatives for the firebird set where i can unleash almighty righteous glory in the form of raining hell down upon my foes whilst still playing it safe? Or should I (ugh) 'try' and scavenge another set from the deceitful grips of RNG for that kind of playstyle-ish?

 

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Guest xNeoshadowx said:

So i have a few questions about this build as I am currently using it for the new season and working with my first wizard. Currently got boosted to a lil over 300 Paragon, I have all the items except Furnace for cube and Compass rose (currently using arcane immunity for my amulet instead of travelers pledge) and i have socketed Bane of the Powerful into my Halo of Arlyse, but have yet to socket Bane of the Trapped and Bane of the Stricken. Oh and im using nemesis bracers instead since i like having more elites to play with.

So first things first, would those two legendarys really buff my non-archon damage to be able to at least handle big mobs of trash whilst waiting the eternity it takes to go into archon again plus farming stacks? Considering i'm literally just sitting there twiddling my thumbs once i get the stacks and find the next elite. 

 

Second is more personal observation as i've run the numbers as Romilly did and found (with diminishing CDR returns of course) that 'IF' you got to 60% CDR, somehow, it still takes a minute of rotation from one archon activation to the next, how is this considered viable as Archon's 20 seconds of fame is your only source of real damage (even with movement speed maxed in paragon you cant move that far as the archon) and once your on that 40-48second wait time your literally relying solely on the tank stats that still gives you that Achilles heel considering your weakness is projectiles? 

 

Third, Any alternatives for the firebird set where i can unleash almighty righteous glory in the form of raining hell down upon my foes whilst still playing it safe? Or should I (ugh) 'try' and scavenge another set from the deceitful grips of RNG for that kind of playstyle-ish?

 

1) You will never do any damage while outside of archon.

This build focuses on slaying elites. NOT Trash-Mobs. You just kill trash-mobs as a byproduct of killing elites.

I can't explain it, but fact is, you do waaaay more damage to elites then to trash-mobs. While taking down an elite in let's say 2 secons (GR 70) it takes me maybe 10 seconds to kill trash-mobs. (Everything while in Archon-Form). On higher GR (80) i would use all my archon time to kill trash-mobs. On GR 85 I can't even kill trash-mobs any longer. Elites still go down fast.

 

2) 60% CDR is very usefull, personally I'd suggest going for just a little higher. With 60% CDR you are 28 seconds out of archon and 20 seconds while in archon form.  This circles perfectly with your Convention of Elements You start your archon-form just a second before you reach fire. Then you get the fire-cylce twiche. And with 60% CDR you can enter your next archonform exactly at the same point in the Element-Cycle. That's why I'd suggest to get 60,5 - 61% CDR, it gives you a small window of a second or two if you missed it somehow (because you were stunned, reacted to late...)

(My earlier statement that you are 50% of your time in archon-form was wrong. 20 seconds archon, 28 seconds out of it. that is just 40% of the time.)

If you are below 60% CDR the Element-Cycle will be way worse.

 

BTW, I don't know why you say you are out of archon for 40 - 48 seconds. That just isn't true. With 60% CDR it is 28 seconds.

 

And like I stated earlier, you have lot's to do while outside of archon form: Search for the next elite, pulling some mobs, getting your stacks up...

 

3) Of course there are other options - you can use fire-hydra, meteor... But none of this comes even close to the damage you do with Archon. If your goal is to do the highest GRs possible this is the only viable opion.

If you just want to have fun slaying enemies - hey, just pick whatever skills you like.

Personally I like the Multishot Deamon Hunter a lot. You just obliterate everything on the screen. That is great fun. But you will be stuck at an Greater Rift around 10 tiers lower then with Firebird Archon.

Edited January 11, 2017 by Guest
Misspelling

[Guest xNeoshadowx]

1) You will never do any damage while outside of archon.

This build focuses on slaying elites. NOT Trash-Mobs. You just kill trash-mobs as a byproduct of killing elites.

I can't explain it, but fact is, you do waaaay more damage to elites then to trash-mobs. While taking down an elite in let's say 2 secons (GR 70) it takes me maybe 10 seconds to kill trash-mobs. (Everything while in Archon-Form). On higher GR (80) i would use all my archon time to kill trash-mobs. On GR 85 I can't even kill trash-mobs any longer. Elites still go down fast.

 

2) 60% CDR is very usefull, personally I'd suggest going for just a little higher. With 60% CDR you are 28 seconds out of archon and 20 seconds while in archon form.  This circles perfectly with your Convention of Elements You start your archon-form just a second before you reach fire. Then you get the fire-cylce twiche. And with 60% CDR you can enter your next archonform exactly at the same point in the Element-Cycle. That's why I'd suggest to get 60,5 - 61% CDR, it gives you a small window of a second or two if you missed it somehow (because you were stunned, reacted to late...)

(My earlier statement that you are 50% of your time in archon-form was wrong. 20 seconds archon, 28 seconds out of it. that is just 40% of the time.)

If you are below 60% CDR the Element-Cycle will be way worse.

 

BTW, I don't know why you say you are out of archon for 40 - 48 seconds. That just isn't true. With 60% CDR it is 28 seconds.

 

And like I stated earlier, you have lot's to do while outside of archon form: Search for the next elite, pulling some mobs, getting your stacks up...

 

 

1) well with the multiple items used for more elite damage i can see why lol. Was just wondering since my CD is like approx~35% so i got loads of downtime before i can kill the next elite, and when you have the hallway maps herding elites + mobs is annoying if they dont aggro right.

 

 

2) Alright math time, so Archon form has a 120 second base cooldown. 60% of 120 is 72 seconds which means your base cooldown is now 48 seconds. So unless i've been seeing this wrong then once you've finished the 20 seconds of Archon the 48 second cooldown until you can use it again starts thus making it around a minute or so between archon activations.

NOW if they have the cooldown start the second you activate archon and it runs concurrently with the archons  20 seconds of fame then you would be correct in saying the cooldown is only 28 seconds. Which is of course would be the best.

My confusion with that is based on the lack of an option i've yet to find that shows a numbered cooldown for skills and not that grey'ed out effect they use instead.

[Guest]

15 hours ago, Guest xNeoshadowx said:

 

1) well with the multiple items used for more elite damage i can see why lol. Was just wondering since my CD is like approx~35% so i got loads of downtime before i can kill the next elite, and when you have the hallway maps herding elites + mobs is annoying if they dont aggro right.

 

 

2) Alright math time, so Archon form has a 120 second base cooldown. 60% of 120 is 72 seconds which means your base cooldown is now 48 seconds. So unless i've been seeing this wrong then once you've finished the 20 seconds of Archon the 48 second cooldown until you can use it again starts thus making it around a minute or so between archon activations.

NOW if they have the cooldown start the second you activate archon and it runs concurrently with the archons  20 seconds of fame then you would be correct in saying the cooldown is only 28 seconds. Which is of course would be the best.

My confusion with that is based on the lack of an option i've yet to find that shows a numbered cooldown for skills and not that grey'ed out effect they use instead.

 

1) You have increased damage vs elites with furnance (+50%) + Bane of the Powerful (+15%)

While (GR 70) it takes around 1 - 2 seconds to kill an elite it takes around 5-10 seconds or more to kill trash-mobs.

Since trash-mobs have less HP then elites I do at least 10 times (more like 30 or even 50 times!) the damage to an elite enemy then on an trash-mob. With the + damage vs elites you can't even explain twice the damage, way less 10 times the damage.

On GR 80+ I can still kill elites in quite a few seconds, but trash-mobs often don't even die in a full rotation.

Like I said, I have absolutly no idea why this is the case.

And I agree with you - with 35% CDR this build seems kind of unplayable to me. 50% should be minimum imo, 60% the value aim for.

 

2) Cooldown starts right after you enter Archon-Form :)

[Valks 2,373]

Sorry that I've been so quiet recently everyone, there has been a huge amount of traffic hitting the WoW comments sections due to the release of 7.1.5.

I'm just going to address some of the more prominent questions:

• The build is extremely reliant on Archon. Your ability to position and kite while outside of Archon will either make this unplayable or perfect, simply due to an ability/inability to survive. 
• The Firebird build listed here is essentially something to aspire to and is currently one of, if not the best builds for Wizard in game. The Fresh level 70 section was what was intended for new players.
• The squishiness of the build outside of your Archon form will be completely dependent on movement. You have to move to avoid dangerous mobs, you have to move to maintain the EW set bonus. If you get trapped, you'll die without Archon.

Apologies once again and, if there is something that hasn't been answered in my absence, please just comment it again below.

[Guest Aimless]

I do not see how this spell configuration is a viable option of the build, as there is no benefit without 3 (three) sources of burn to cause Ignite on the mobs... therefore the set bonuses from 4 set and 6 set are pointless

[Guest]

17 hours ago, Blainie said:

The squishiness of the build outside of your Archon form will be completely dependent on movement. You have to move to avoid dangerous mobs, you have to move to maintain the EW set bonus. If you get trapped, you'll die without Archon.

 

And never forget the Teleport Safe Passage

It is possible to evade incoming spears with this, skip dangerous mob-groups, and after using it you get another damage reduction. Which can save your life. -> If you have tons of ground-effects (arcane traps, molten...) before you because of elites, try to get close to it and teleport as far as you can. With the damagereduction you can hopefully survive the last meters.

Maybe combine it with Frost Nova : Teleport near a group of enemies, immediatly cast Nova to trigger Ancient Parthan Defenders Now you should be able to get to safety.

[Guest Eredrin]

I think i can provide some advice on getting started with this build from my won experience. As i mentioned before somewhere in this thread, i had extreme problems staying alive while i was learning to play it. What helped me extremely was as follows - until you get some practice and a hang of the playstyle, take unity on you and cube halo of arlyse instead of CoE (unity is better on yourself because of +elite damage and because of max bonus to damage reduction from arlyse due to cube). Also, take diamond skin instead of frost nova (you'll still be casting nova all the time from arlyse, just without the damage bonus). That way took me to around GR65-70. If my experience is any indication, around that level you should hit the point when you will lack DAMAGE, not TOUGHNESS to progress. That's the time to dump diamond skin for frost nova. I'm now on that stage and I've managed to reach GR88. If you feel you need more damage there is still CoE waiting for you to replace unity. I haven't done this though, since again what I lack is survivability. I'm pretty sure that with some patience i can reach GR90 this way.

 

[Guest Eredrin]

And to add to the above, on the stage that you are using diamond skin, you should have just enough CDR to have 100% uptime on it,

[Valks 2,373]

On 1/13/2017 at 4:45 AM, Guest Aimless said:

I do not see how this spell configuration is a viable option of the build, as there is no benefit without 3 (three) sources of burn to cause Ignite on the mobs... therefore the set bonuses from 4 set and 6 set are pointless

Archon has 3 fire skills to proc it.

[Valks 2,373]

23 hours ago, WedgeAntilles said:

It is possible to evade incoming spears with this, skip dangerous mob-groups, and after using it you get another damage reduction. Which can save your life. -> If you have tons of ground-effects (arcane traps, molten...) before you because of elites, try to get close to it and teleport as far as you can. With the damagereduction you can hopefully survive the last meters.

Yeah, skipping mobs is a key part of GRift pushing that people often forget/don't know about. It's pointless to die 10 times and waste all that time when you could have just skipped it.

[Valks 2,373]

9 hours ago, Guest Eredrin said:

I think i can provide some advice on getting started with this build from my won experience. As i mentioned before somewhere in this thread, i had extreme problems staying alive while i was learning to play it.

I do think Wizard is one of the more difficult classes to learn to play, so I'm not surprised people are having issues staying alive. It's challenging, but can be extremely rewarding.

[Moos 6]

Why is a high damage range #1 priority stat for the off-hand, while it is not listed at all for the rings? I found a The Compass Rose with +xxx-xxx damage, are there different rules for +damage on off-hands and rings?

[Valks 2,373]

3 hours ago, Moos said:

Why is a high damage range #1 priority stat for the off-hand, while it is not listed at all for the rings? I found a The Compass Rose with +xxx-xxx damage, are there different rules for +damage on off-hands and rings?

Will double check with Deadset, but I believe it is basically just because the choices on the rings are more important and the source damage rolls higher.

[Guest Dre]

Why is Recource cost reduction listed as 2nd priority in the paragon (utility)? This build is not using any recource...

[Guest InfernalImp]

Feel like a complete idiot asking this, but what exactly is High Damage Range? I have been scouring the enchant tables and just don't understand what it is.

[Valks 2,373]

13 hours ago, Guest Dre said:

Why is Recource cost reduction listed as 2nd priority in the paragon (utility)? This build is not using any recource...

It most likely wasn't updated from the old build. In reality, both AD and RCR are useless for the build, so you can put it into either and it really won't make a difference.

[Valks 2,373]

13 hours ago, Guest InfernalImp said:

Feel like a complete idiot asking this, but what exactly is High Damage Range? I have been scouring the enchant tables and just don't understand what it is.

The numerical damage figure that occurs on weapons, off-hands, rings and necks. For example, "1200 - 1650 Arcane Damage" or "91 - 131 Damage".