11-25-2013, 08:05 PM
I'm feeling a little defeated about my RF character, but after thinking about it last night, I'm going to press on.
I figure I would give everyone a play by play on how I'm trying to tackle RF in the new, 1.0 world. I've looked over a few specs, and I'm going to say right now, none of them blow my hair back. Why? Because most of them, are VERY out of the idea of what I'm looking to do. So, I guess at this point, we should define what it is that I'm trying to do. I'm trying to build a life based, Fire burning, immolating monstrosity, that uses Righteous Fire, and Fireball / Firestorm, (I'm also considering Incinerate, if I were to happen across the gem. I'm not going out of my way to get one, but if I see one, I might give it a whirl.) I would love to get to a point where I'm using RF to kill things, and at times, I can.
Here is my build so far.
I have a lot of points into passive mana regen. This is intentional. While I don't plan on going out of my way to stack mana, mana regen helps with Arctic Armour, another part of the build that I want to try and have some fun with. I love AA so far. It's been instrumental in saving my butt a few times already. I'm actually mulling over including one more mana regen increasing talent in the spec. I'm not sure I will or not.
This is what I have mapped out next
This finishes off the Fire Damage portion of where I'm at, gets elemental adaptation, an extra Endurance Charge, and the Life Regen based on EC's, behind it, as well as more life, and passive life regen. My goal at this point, is to run 2 Auras. Vitality, and Purity of Fire. I have Purity of Fire, but not a vitality yet. They will be linked with a reduced mana gem, to free up as much mana as I can. This also gets me the aura effect increasing talents, which will allow me to get better life regen, and more out of purity of fire. I am curious if the "increase aura effects" portion will increase the Max % Fire Resist portion of PoF. It would stand to reason that it is part of the aura, so it should, but I'm unsure if it would matter, as I would need a max level PoF + 25% increased to pick up 1% more, if there is no rounding involved. I'm sure time will tell easily enough.
Now, at this point, with my current build, I'm able to use my Ruby Flask, and Arctic Armour + PoF to get to a "life regen neutral state" and sustain it while I have flask charges in my life / Ruby Flask. This allows me time to actually focus on casting other spells, and clearing faster. The problem right now with RF, is that I don't have the setup needed to cast spells while running RF, as I have to focus on keeping myself alive.
On the other hand, if I'm able to drag enough together around me, I'm able to burn them down in no time with RF. Boss level monsters are the only thing so far that don't explode in a timely fashion.
Meaning, RF is still very capable of destroying packs of monsters, quickly, and efficiently.
But, as far as using it to "burst things down", at this point, I'm not capable of doing that. RF doesn't last long enough to "burst down" bosses, and it's gotten me killed on more than one occasion, trying to do so.
I will also be working to get a Rise of the Phoenix. I found that in domination they are pretty cheap. I might just go ahead and pick one up now, at ~5 chaos, rather than wait and see if the build survives further. I wouldn't mind owning one anyway. it could make for an interesting piece to have in a "backup set" for other builds in the future (say.... a +X% as fire damage map, burning ground, or other similar situation)
As far as what it would look like build / gem wise when I get to a point where I'm wearing the shield.
Firestorm + Fire Pen + CTI + Ele Prolif + iron Will (w/4L)
Fireball + CTI + LMP (what I'm using currently) + Iron Will (W/4L)
RF + Increased Area + ?
Vitality + PoF + Flammability + reduced Mana
CwDT (level.... 8 I think is what I have setup on my Scion, works well) + Enduring Cry + Temp Chains
CWDT + Immortal Call (leveled to 12+ on both)
As far as Bandits. I helped Oak in Norm. In Curel, I'm going to kill them all. In Merc, I'll be helping Oak.
As far as a build flesh out to 85 points, which I should have when I can put on the Rise of the phoenix shield?
I have two options in mind:
level 65 build a
level 65 build b
I see merits in both builds. I like B, because it will make wearing things like Koam's Sign Easier, allowing for more EC's, by virtue of including more resists, and putting me close to another aura cluster, that will help me boost the two auras that I will end up using. It also picks up some Chaos Resist, which right now, looks to be the one thing I'm going to fear most. But, Build A, gets me a little closer to another EC, as well as more passive Life Regen, which build B will not be able to reach, while picking up more things to round out the build.
From Build B, I would probably look to round out around Here when I would try Sceptre of God, in the low 70's. I say the low 70's, because this build is very odd, and I've already seen that there are times I'm going to die. It's the very nature of the build at this point, as I'm trying to use things in a way that is completely unconventional to their intent, at this point in the game.
I would imagine that any points past this are going to be invested in health. the next 13 points would all go towards HP nodes + 1 .4% regen node. HP ends up being the highest damage stat for the build, as the higher my HP goes, the harder RF will hit.
The big problems I see in the build so far, are going to be:
1.) I will have pitiful Armor / ES / Evasion. I'll be relying on my immolating life pool + Endurance Charges (I could get to 8) to keep me alive.
2.) My Mana Pool, while constantly refreshing, will be pitifully small.
3.) Gear for the build will be EXPENSIVE, highly niche, and a real PITA.
4.) I'm going to die. A lot.
But, It's something I'm very interested to try out. I'm really hoping that the build starts to come together, now that I have a foundation laid for it. If not, I'm going to have a really terrible character sitting around doing nothing. Maybe I can add some sort of movement and turn it into a terrible pvp build.
I figure I would give everyone a play by play on how I'm trying to tackle RF in the new, 1.0 world. I've looked over a few specs, and I'm going to say right now, none of them blow my hair back. Why? Because most of them, are VERY out of the idea of what I'm looking to do. So, I guess at this point, we should define what it is that I'm trying to do. I'm trying to build a life based, Fire burning, immolating monstrosity, that uses Righteous Fire, and Fireball / Firestorm, (I'm also considering Incinerate, if I were to happen across the gem. I'm not going out of my way to get one, but if I see one, I might give it a whirl.) I would love to get to a point where I'm using RF to kill things, and at times, I can.
Here is my build so far.
I have a lot of points into passive mana regen. This is intentional. While I don't plan on going out of my way to stack mana, mana regen helps with Arctic Armour, another part of the build that I want to try and have some fun with. I love AA so far. It's been instrumental in saving my butt a few times already. I'm actually mulling over including one more mana regen increasing talent in the spec. I'm not sure I will or not.
This is what I have mapped out next
This finishes off the Fire Damage portion of where I'm at, gets elemental adaptation, an extra Endurance Charge, and the Life Regen based on EC's, behind it, as well as more life, and passive life regen. My goal at this point, is to run 2 Auras. Vitality, and Purity of Fire. I have Purity of Fire, but not a vitality yet. They will be linked with a reduced mana gem, to free up as much mana as I can. This also gets me the aura effect increasing talents, which will allow me to get better life regen, and more out of purity of fire. I am curious if the "increase aura effects" portion will increase the Max % Fire Resist portion of PoF. It would stand to reason that it is part of the aura, so it should, but I'm unsure if it would matter, as I would need a max level PoF + 25% increased to pick up 1% more, if there is no rounding involved. I'm sure time will tell easily enough.
Now, at this point, with my current build, I'm able to use my Ruby Flask, and Arctic Armour + PoF to get to a "life regen neutral state" and sustain it while I have flask charges in my life / Ruby Flask. This allows me time to actually focus on casting other spells, and clearing faster. The problem right now with RF, is that I don't have the setup needed to cast spells while running RF, as I have to focus on keeping myself alive.
On the other hand, if I'm able to drag enough together around me, I'm able to burn them down in no time with RF. Boss level monsters are the only thing so far that don't explode in a timely fashion.
Meaning, RF is still very capable of destroying packs of monsters, quickly, and efficiently.
But, as far as using it to "burst things down", at this point, I'm not capable of doing that. RF doesn't last long enough to "burst down" bosses, and it's gotten me killed on more than one occasion, trying to do so.
I will also be working to get a Rise of the Phoenix. I found that in domination they are pretty cheap. I might just go ahead and pick one up now, at ~5 chaos, rather than wait and see if the build survives further. I wouldn't mind owning one anyway. it could make for an interesting piece to have in a "backup set" for other builds in the future (say.... a +X% as fire damage map, burning ground, or other similar situation)
As far as what it would look like build / gem wise when I get to a point where I'm wearing the shield.
Firestorm + Fire Pen + CTI + Ele Prolif + iron Will (w/4L)
Fireball + CTI + LMP (what I'm using currently) + Iron Will (W/4L)
RF + Increased Area + ?
Vitality + PoF + Flammability + reduced Mana
CwDT (level.... 8 I think is what I have setup on my Scion, works well) + Enduring Cry + Temp Chains
CWDT + Immortal Call (leveled to 12+ on both)
As far as Bandits. I helped Oak in Norm. In Curel, I'm going to kill them all. In Merc, I'll be helping Oak.
As far as a build flesh out to 85 points, which I should have when I can put on the Rise of the phoenix shield?
I have two options in mind:
level 65 build a
level 65 build b
I see merits in both builds. I like B, because it will make wearing things like Koam's Sign Easier, allowing for more EC's, by virtue of including more resists, and putting me close to another aura cluster, that will help me boost the two auras that I will end up using. It also picks up some Chaos Resist, which right now, looks to be the one thing I'm going to fear most. But, Build A, gets me a little closer to another EC, as well as more passive Life Regen, which build B will not be able to reach, while picking up more things to round out the build.
From Build B, I would probably look to round out around Here when I would try Sceptre of God, in the low 70's. I say the low 70's, because this build is very odd, and I've already seen that there are times I'm going to die. It's the very nature of the build at this point, as I'm trying to use things in a way that is completely unconventional to their intent, at this point in the game.
I would imagine that any points past this are going to be invested in health. the next 13 points would all go towards HP nodes + 1 .4% regen node. HP ends up being the highest damage stat for the build, as the higher my HP goes, the harder RF will hit.
The big problems I see in the build so far, are going to be:
1.) I will have pitiful Armor / ES / Evasion. I'll be relying on my immolating life pool + Endurance Charges (I could get to 8) to keep me alive.
2.) My Mana Pool, while constantly refreshing, will be pitifully small.
3.) Gear for the build will be EXPENSIVE, highly niche, and a real PITA.
4.) I'm going to die. A lot.
But, It's something I'm very interested to try out. I'm really hoping that the build starts to come together, now that I have a foundation laid for it. If not, I'm going to have a really terrible character sitting around doing nothing. Maybe I can add some sort of movement and turn it into a terrible pvp build.
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