[3.0] AFK Gone Cheap - AFK up to T16 guardians||Shaper killed || 3.0 balls video montage!

So I did a few maps without Avatar of Fire and there is absolutely no difference with respect to ignites, as long as we have Adds Fire Damage to Spells on the sceptre. I can't vouch for Mantra of Fire but I suppose it should work just fine since neither Chance to Ignite nor Ignite Duration depend on the amount of fire damage dealt.Of course, having "Fire Damage to Spells" on the sceptre trumps the jewel because 7% to max Life is just too good.

The noticeable difference, however, is the damage output... my Sparks, although "hampered" by Chance to Ignite and Elemental Proliferation, now just blow away Bloodline mobs before even getting close... in T15 maps! And shocked bosses do melt a lot faster too (didn't even bother swapping gems for more Spark ST damage). ;)



"Ignite galore" in Wasteland.



"Unravelling Horror" (T15) in shock and awe. ;)

I can't use spark due my colors in armor. 1g-2r-3B

BV has some issues due overlapping stacks from CWDT procs. What can be used here with same constancy like BV? Vortex didn't ignite after initial hit. Sparks require 4B. Ball of Lightning is pretty weak.
BL(B)-SLOW PRJ(G)-FIRE PEN(R)-IRON WILL/ADDED FIRE DAMAGE(R)-(ECHO-IGNITE CHANCE)/(FASTER CAST-IGNITE CHANCE)?

Or switch to ignite/CwCh?

Spark is just my personal preference and since it's a Lightning spell it's getting a handy boost from my sceptre (27% increased Lightning Damage)... colouring can be a b*tch though since the ideal setup requires BBBBGG (Spark, Spell Echo, Pierce, Chance to Ignite, GMP, Elemental Proliferation... where the last two can be swapped for Slower Projectiles and Faster Casting/Controlled Destruction for better ST performance).

High-level Lightning Nova in the gloves might be sufficient to shock enemies.

After a few more tests I'm sold on the idea of getting rid of Avatar of Fire for good. I have changed the tree along the lines explained in my previous post and my Life pool has gone up from 7919 to 8175 with Belly of the Beast (9324 with Kaom's Heart).

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lapilesos wrote:

BL(B)-SLOW PRJ(G)-FIRE PEN(R)-IRON WILL/ADDED FIRE DAMAGE(R)-(ECHO-IGNITE CHANCE)/(FASTER CAST-IGNITE CHANCE)?

After dumping Avatar, Fire Penetration makes no sense with Ball Lightning and Added Fire Damage only scales from physical damage. The only red gem which makes some sense is Iron Will. You can also use Iron Will instead of Elemental Proliferation with Spark which means more damage at the expense of fewer ignites and it makes colouring slightly easier.

Just decided to test active BV vs Incinerate vs Spark again, however (this is a big but), I did keep avatar of fire since I can't respec this char without losing my whole total tree respec.

Important note, this is in not way a scientific study, just a quick comparison. I would recommend you all to test for yourself which setup you like the most with tabula, to then decide if you are in doubt.

Description of how I did it:




The test:





My own thoughts:

"

ChrispieD wrote:

Just decided to test active BV vs Incinerate vs Spark again, however (this is a big but), I did keep avatar of fire since I can't respec this char without losing my whole total tree respec.

Important note, this is in not way a scientific study, just a quick comparison. I would recommend you all to test for yourself which setup you like the most with tabula, to then decide if you are in doubt.

Description of how I did it:

Spoiler

I also did moku's embrace vs taming. I cleared in normal pace, with my normal technique. If something extraordenary like a 20 sec screen freeze happened, I paused the timer right in beginning and then put it on when it was over. I picked up items as normally. Big backtrackings or things that I didn't account for in the timer was noted down.

The map of choice was T11 chateau map, mainly because I had 6 of them so I could do the comparison. This map shows the positivity from the increased whirling speed from moku's in a bad way since it has lots of obsticles. I didn't feel that the room layout was bad however for spark as it bounces more.

The test:

Spoiler

Taming+emberwake
Spark + Gmp+echo+ele prolif+chance to ignite+faster proj
3:30 - 20 left
Incinerate+GMP+Faster proj.-Faster cast - Chance to ignite+Ele prolif
2:40 11 left
- Had a bit of backtracking, maybe lost 15 secs
BV+added fire+echo+contr destr+chance to ignite+inc aoe
2:45 17 left

Dual moku's
BV+added fire+echo+contr destr+chance to ignite+inc aoe
2:40 22 left
with maybe 10 secs backtracking

Incinerate+GMP+Faster proj.-Faster cast - Chance to ignite+Ele prolif
2:45 11 left
maybe 15 secs backtracking + rare that made screenfreeze for 10 secs
2x slower boss kill than bv moku
elemental prolif here was stupid, clear speed should have been a bit higher

BV+added fire+echo+contr destr+chance to ignite+inc aoe
3:45 - 34 left
Had a screen freeze for maybe 15 secs so I stopped the timer right away
Also had smaller screen freezes maybe 3-4 times. Would have probably shaved off 20 secs if it wasn't for the lag. Maybe 3x the boss kill time of bv moku's.
elemental prolif here was stupid, clear speed should have been a bit higher

My own thoughts:

Spoiler

Before the results I want to tell my personal experience. When it comes to boss killing with taming, bv (without concentrated effect) was a bit faster (maybe 20-50%) than spark and incinerate, which were about equal. With moku's embrace, bv (without conc. effect) was maybe 100% faster than incinerate, and incinerate was maybe 50% faster than spark. I was standing on boss during the whole battle so all my CWDT spells would hit it including BV.

When it comes to map clearing with taming spark with taming felt pretty good as I didn't have to run after single targets. But it also lagged a lot, which brought down the experience. Incinerate also felt even better than spark. Blade vortex felt the fastest, but wasn't. If accounting the backtracking, incinerate was maybe 15 secs faster. Spark was the slowest, ca 40% slower than incinerate. This is with avatar of fire however.


One very important thing with moku's and spark and incinerate that I kept elemental proliferation on, which actually reduced their damage and gave them notiong back. This means that spark and incinerate would have preformed a good bit better than they did in this part of the test.
When it comes to moku's clearing, as dmg reduced with spark a lot, the lag became inbearable.

If there would have been flame bearers in the map, it would have been 4-5 occations where I could have died due to screen freeze. Incinerate felt just as good as before. Blade vortex felt a bit better.

Thanks for the build, I am currently level 52 so cant test it yet. I appreciate all the testing/work on this, I only played BV last league and I dont really want to start that again so I was really interested in using Spark.
Also what do you think about Using Scorching Ray? would that be better than Incinerate? or does it not ignite since it has the burning debuff? The fire pen seems like it would be really useful as long as it ignites.
Thanks!

Damage boost from dropping AoF is pretty nominal. The bulk of the damage still tends to come from the Fire Burst proc, which barely gains any damage from dropping AoF (assuming you have some non-fire +spell damage; I have some +lightning on sceptre and Vinktar's). However, it does open up some options.

First, a 15% ele reflect Quay did not present me any issues, though I remind I'm still using double curse and a WM in my high level CWDT so I can pretty much always hit 4% leech for all damage types at a minimum. Still, ele reflect = many many more CWDT triggers (you should pretty much always be triggering them at the .25 cooldown rate, even high level CWDTs) as before, which means many many more hits to proc Fire Burst as often as possible (plus extra damage from your high-level CWDTs).

Second, physical reflect can now become deliciously useful, as well, at least if you're using BV. It also helps to continually proc your CWDTs, for the same benefits as before. But it also would let you continually trigger a Vaal Molten Shell, letting you VMS down bosses without the need for a Rat Cage (you'll still need it in maps without phys reflect). I've not yet actually tried a physical reflect map, though; we don't have quite as much natural mitigation of this damage type, so even though it's not our main damage source it may still be problematic when reflected.

Third, you can now do Chaos damage, so an Atziri flask or something may be worth looking into adding to your belt. Which is nice in those situations where you're fighting something that actually does meaningful chaos damage and you'd like some resists (my rares give me +15% chaos resist in Merciless, which is usually sufficient). For similar reasons, a Taste of Hate may be a bit more productive, though this would remain something mostly done for the physical damage mitigation (even with a BV main setup and some phys spells in your high-level CWDT you aren't doing much physical damage, so you won't get much more damage and so not much more in the way of freezes).

We're not too likely to get other elemental status effects without going out of our way to alter the skill setup in our chest specifically to produce them (which would then likely remove the phys reflect + VMS hilarity), at least not against things with actually decent HP and resists.

"

MrCharger8 wrote:

Thanks for the build, I am currently level 52 so cant test it yet. I appreciate all the testing/work on this, I only played BV last league and I dont really want to start that again so I was really interested in using Spark.
Also what do you think about Using Scorching Ray? would that be better than Incinerate? or does it not ignite since it has the burning debuff? The fire pen seems like it would be really useful as long as it ignites.
Thanks!

I believe SR's burning debuff will count as ignite/burning for all purposes. However, the ray doesn't hit as it's just a DoT, which means it will never proc Fire Burst, which is our true main damage source.

"

TimeDilation wrote:

Damage boost from dropping AoF is pretty nominal.

I beg to differ... blasting champ mobs (without Fire Burst) in T15 maps is no small feast. I certainly couldn't hope for that with Avatar of Fire.

Fire Burst benefits from dropping Avatar of Fire insofar as we can shock enemies without Vinktar or VLT. This however, requires a rather high amount of lightning damage.

"

lightning damage of less than 5% of a target's maximum life will not apply shock

When it comes to late-game bosses, we will have to overcome a pretty steep threshold before our Chance to Shock is calculated. I doubt a high-level CWDT Shock Nova without support gems can achieve that. A 6-link lightning spell OTH should do the trick... as might Blade Vortex with Physical to Lightning and Added Lightning Damage.

Phys reflect doesn't seem to be a problem. Curiously, it doesn't seem to proc VMS. It was definitely triggering my CWDTs, but VMS didn't seem to care. Apparently this is known and mentioned on the wiki, and I just never knew it. Still, one more mod to make you into a death machine is pretty nice.