just read to the part where I found out you have a mempo... yeah apoc on em is a ***** and expensive to boot. First world problems.
K gonna read rest now... but do not get rid of your mempo I'd say.
My friend requested that I gear up his wizard as a windup with a 100mil budget, and I had a lvl60 wizard myself so I AH'd all the gear and tested it out. (Strangely, he still hasn't picked it up; it's still on my wizard.) That said I've got a few new opinions.
I don't see why magicrectangle wouldn't want tons of IAS on his archon, at least in the armor slots. Simply switching weapon+source from Chantodo's set to, say, a crit+socket 1h and a Triumvirate or something... you'd only really need two gear pieces different. Last I checked most archons already ran critical mass to return to archon faster if needed, and IAS helps the efficiency on this one.
If you want to increase DPS and survivability at the same time, and you're dying before (or just after) you've set up on a mob, the Int/Vit affix is a good answer. If you want to increase DPS and survivability at the same time, and you're dying in the middle of engaging a mob, Int/Str (or more IAS, or more crit chance) is a better answer. Str increases the effective EHP of Diamond Skin, life-on-hit, life steal, and life/second. Vit doesn't nothing in that department. At all.
+Int/+Dex is an odd duck. In a perfect world where everything what consistent and predictable, Dex would be a lot like Str, actually better (it doesn't have a +dodge% mod to compete against, unlike's Str's nemesis +armor). However, in the real world the RNG does weird things often and that can be bad for tanks like the windup, who crave consistency (and already have to deal with some RNG from the critical hit part of their engine). The longer the battle, the higher the chance the RNG will even out and you'll have something consistent. If you're barely tanking something, success or failure can be decided in an instant, the effective battle could take only a couple seconds, and dex-based EHP will fail you eventually; if you're not having any trouble tanking something, the extra tanking is redundant and the slots could have been used on DPS. So people are right not to give dodge-based EHP full value.
However,
- there a few attractive legendaries (Inna's Temperance, Natalya's Ring+Boots) where dex is mandatory, and if you get all three you'd go from 167 to 511-556 Dexterity (at plvl100, assuming no more dex affixes), which increases post-dodge EHP 10.7% to 12.0% in addition to the cool things those items already do. Even if you don't like the RNG, there are items out there that push you in that direction.
- raw power can compensate for an unfavorable mechanic. Getting a 10-12% increase in non-dodge EHP would require larger-than-10-to-12% increase in either armor or resist all. If you have 6300 armor buffed and you want a 10-12% increase, you'd need 700-840 more armor on your items to achieve the result. Taking those three legendaries as an example, that's 233-280 armor average per piece. Getting that much +armor on each is very difficult (point for res Inna's); getting that much strength is flat-out impossible (point for Int/Dex affix). Of course, due to the RNG we shouldn't value it quite that high, but even if you give it a 25% penalty for being a naughty RNG mechanic it still adds value.
Overall: Don't be afraid of Dex either. I wouldn't value the EHP gains at full value, but you don't want to ignore it completely, and your endgame goal should definitely have about 500 Dex. (You only need 333 from gear for this.)
In short, I can't think of any other character that like +all attributes more. Things like Mara's Kaleidoscope and Seven Sins are actually pretty damn good on a windup (I'm not saying they're best-in-slot or anything, just that they shine as mid-tier items). Balance is more important than focusing too much on any one aspect. Except for IAS and CC. Can't get too much of those.
Last edited by Dethklok; 08-11-2012 at 07:23.
Archon is all about max damage. There are 5 damage stats to consider:Originally Posted by Dethklok
Crit
Crit daamge
IAS
Intelligence
+% to element
These interact multiplicatively, so you you gain much more damage by a balance of all of these stats than by stacking one of them to the exclusion of others. So, the answer is of course I'd want more IAS, more is better, after all, but not if I had to give up something I'm already lower on (crit, in my archon gear) to get it.
You've got it the wrong way around. Archon is my primary spec. Critical mass is just for messing around with. I'm not going to use a critical mass gear set with a weapon swap for archon. I'm going to use an archon gear set and swap what I need to for critical mass.Simply switching weapon+source from Chantodo's set to, say, a crit+socket 1h and a Triumvirate or something...
This actually isn't true. The longer the battle goes on, the more chances there are for dodge to fail you in a streak.The longer the battle, the higher the chance the RNG will even out and you'll have something consistent.
I suppose for critical mass in particular the most dangerous part of the fight is the very start - but even if we say we only care about that segment of the fight when considering our defensive stats, then fight length simply becomes irrelevant.
The RNG isn't the only problem with dodge. Lots of damage can't be dodged. Off the top of my head (not a complete list):Of course, due to the RNG we shouldn't value it quite that high, but even if you give it a 25% penalty for being a naughty RNG mechanic it still adds value.
Desecrate
Plagued
Molten
Reflect Damage
No. Balance is not important, it just doesn't suck quite as much as it does for less tanky builds. You're still dramatically better off if those stat allocations in strength and dex are armor and resist all instead.In short, I can't think of any other character that like +all attributes more. Things like Mara's Kaleidoscope and Seven Sins are actually pretty damn good on a windup (I'm not saying they're best-in-slot or anything, just that they shine as mid-tier items). Balance is more important than focusing too much on any one aspect.
The "ballance" to be struck is between offense (crit, ias, int), defense (resist all, armor), and pool (vit, %life). Dex and strength are nominally useful, but strictly worse than resist all and armor in terms of reward per affix allotment (IE you can get three times as much armor from one affix roll than you can strength). Dex and strength are fine if you get them, but not things to look for. Strength is better than dex because it works reliably against all damage, but even that should only be picked up as a "trash" affix (IE on an item where it doesn't effect the sale price much).
Hello all, and thank you very much for all your feedback.
My wizzy is going better every day. I finally dropped Meteor and pick up chain reaction, hands down. The thing is, after 1.05 havent got too much time to play, and since procs were messed, while swiching gear and the like for some days I did run better with meteor. Now, with 45% chance to crit, 19 APC and 2.53 APS, all at the same time, Chain Reaction >>>>any meteor.
In the meanwhile, while I figure how to get more IAS to reach the 2,74 break (is it really that good?) , I just wanted to talk about my dex.
The first point is, if my dex is that high, it is not on purpose, it is just I got in AH a pants (socketed) and a boots both with with 2xx dex, 17x int, 1xx vit 7x all resist, for less than 1M each, being the best items on these slots I can afford; the next step being the usuall well-rolled legendaries beating my items cost an eye to me. I only have 60 mill saved.
The second point is, I always get better % protection when comparing items in the range 5x dex vs 5x strengh vs 1xx armor vs 2x AR, then I use the dex one. What else I would do?
Tomb
Ubers is going pretty well with my weapon+jewelry swap for critical mass. I'm pretty sure the items I've picked up are now "enough." I frapsed my latest run if anybody is interested:
MP7 Ubers Critical Mass Wizard
That's the full run, not just the ubers. Ubers starts at 13 min if the 5 stack and keywarden doesn't interest you. You might notice our WD died a lot. Not sure what that was about, I didn't really look at his gear or spec, but in any case, it didn't matter much tiz (spin2win barb) and I can 2 man 4 player MP7.
Planning to try MP10 this weekend with 4 geared people instead of just two. Given that ZK can be killed first thanks to freeze lockdown, I think we can beat the enrage.
Last edited by magicrectangle; 08-11-2012 at 18:41.
wow lot of replies. Don't have a chance to read with full attention now, but will tomorrow. Want to acknowledge it though, so you don't think I've abandoned the thread.
Although I do think i may have seen someone try to back up building dexterity for this build, and now my wife has told me I need to repair all the holes I punched in our walls around the house before playing again. First world problems.
I usually play with Kestegs, Lost(dickscotchfist), and run a hybrid meteor build with the 20% damage bubble. Get one of those in your group along with the Monk buffs and you can down MP10 pretty quick.
The only rough thing is the bubble on Magda. So many bugs held up in the bubble can be painful. If you need anyone for MP10 feel free to add me. If I am already in a game i know some others that are geared for it.
Softcore Evaluator
Did MP10 a bit ago with 2x barbs, wd, and me:
MP10 Ubers
I'm sure having multiple critical mass wizards would be even better, but it worked reasonably well. I don't spec bubble specifically because of maghda. I'm also still using a lot of archon gear so my resists aren't so great, but still, MP10 is very doable.
So it turns out bubble isn't really all that bad on maghda. It is maybe a little annoying while she is shielded and able to cast several swarms, but it isn't bad at all when you're locking her down. Did some MP10 runs this morning that went pretty well, then frapsed one which of course went less well, but still alright. We actually had 2x bubbles, since we had 2x CM wizards. Went with time warp + stretch time for better debuffing. Of course we weren't geared enough to rock shocking aspect, so our damage wasn't great, but good enough that ZK wasn't a problem, which is all that really matters.
MP10 Ubers "Double Bubble"
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
darkrealm
Bookmarks