Fire Ally thoughts after top seasonal clear

[Preface: I was originally going to reply to my original Fire Ally thread where I showed how Fire allies are failing to do damage but ‘new’ forums dont allow for you to reply twice in a row… so I figured new thread cause its more directed at the gameplay aspect]

I just got the fastest 135 clear on Fire Inna’s Monk on Seasonal PTR – All I can say is … I hate this build. I literally enjoyed Patterns of Justice original SW version much more.

This build is a pet build with multiple pets but plays like impale EXCEPT on this you dont get to control where the damage goes and half the time there is no damage… you get an illusion pack GL you get a waller pack GL you get too many mobs… GL

Like Kikaha said if you dont 1 shot the build doesnt work… which means its purely a stat/damage check (like we metaphorically talk about all of Diablo being the straight DPS check) but this legitimately is there’s very minimal if any strategy and none of the finesse you still see on most builds for higher clears.

You know what this build is… run around dont collect too much activate move forward a bit cyclone them together try to get it so your fire allies can attack (if you do this perfectly you will stay around the timer) then you find a conduit and this is the only way you really pull ahead when you are pushing it to its limits … You wanna know how I got the clear after ~40 keys and getting things like lacuni phasebeast square festering woods with multiple good pylons and failing horribly… I got a power pylon with two elites by themselves basically to get me back even with time, then I walked into a festering woods with a conduit at the door and 4 elite packs, then I got channeling for the boss which may have made the difference for fastest 135 or just one of the 3 135 clears up there.

Water Ally was so much smoother area damage actually worked which helps also they hit a much bigger radius and had no collision

I honestly cannot think of a build I enjoyed less [there probably is one] but as someone who has enjoyed many a monk builds

I loved LoN TR + EP, Inna’s Palm (broken promises version too), Inna’s Gen w/ 2p Raiment, Nirvana Monk, Light SW was even fun, Ulianna (with or without BP back when we thought madstone was good), Raiment 6 Dashing Strike + SWK spirit dump EVEN THOUGH IT KILLED MY HANDS, SWK LTK, SWK EP + WOL back in first seasons, SWK WOL, Inna’s WOL, WOL with RS+ LoD, LTK with RS+LOD, Druins TR build, SWK palm, and the one that ruined monks chances of ever being damage meta Static Charge

But quite honestly PoJ is kinda boring to me and clunky but its still playable - Inna’s pet cold back when wasnt the funnest build ever but it was several times more enjoyable than this fire build.

Just so Im not only complaining here…

If you are insisting this is the build for Inna’s please fix:

Area Damage on Activation for Fire Ally
Mystic Ally % on Activation for Fire Ally
both work for their passive attacks

But the one MANDATORY thing Blizz/d3team need to change for this build to just make sense upon activation fire ally (the mini’s) have NO collision they can move through impassable objects however you wanna say it/they get illusory boots etc I’d say remove collision entirely but I feel like new players probably enjoy the pets blocking incoming damage.

Other smaller things (explosion should hit in a much bigger radius and hit multiple mobs at once per explosion) also pets should prefer targetting mobs that were cycloned striked recently or even just within that radius.

I really do appreciate D3 team still coming up with fresh ideas, this late in the games lifespan but sometimes there is some serious tweeking needed to just make the build work… imagine if we left POJ the way it was originally where Epiphany ported you everytime your mouse touched a mob and you lost your flurry stacks.

9 Likes

Joa.
But I´m still enjoying my Inna-TR :slight_smile: :sunflower:

Sure.
It is squishy as Hell and you would need tons of Paragon, to make it even work as intended.
But it feels just so much smoother than the actual Top Builds :X

And yea. With Squirts instead of EW-Set and only 20% DR from the Bluster-Rune of TR it doesn´t make it any better if you want to survive.
But at least your ORotZ does a great Job, so that you have perma Epi + quite a good Uptime on Serenity and your Allies (wich you need to activate at least 2 times per CoE-Cicle, to refill your Spirit halfway through).

Also. While you use the Power of a WKL nearly all your Allys are more or less directly besides you, wich makes it easyer for them to attk the Targets you have pulled, instead, that they stay outside of the grouped Enemys.


Just pers. Prefferances =)


<img src=https://i.imgur.com/3LL36z8.jpg  width=450>

Fire allies are awful, even on lower levels ( GR 80 thats where i’m now). The buff on the BotLG should apply to all allies and water could rock on high GRs i’m certain.

1 Like

Thank you very much for this post. Your description of your 135 is so familiar. I luck out on a big clear as you described and then nothing better for months on end. Which brings me to the point of my reply. So very many friends present and past gave the monk an honest try but they soon stopped playing it with these comments …

The monk is so hit and miss
The build seemed hot and cold
Too inconsistent for my tastes
Why to you even play it? not in a derogatory way but trying to be helpful.

I was also happy to read Druin’s named mentioned in your post. Had the very good fortune of running with him in the past. So intelligent and extremely talented player!
Wonder what his comments on this new Inna set would be?

The ptr inna set seems to be about 3-4 gr higher than my ns poj TR so I will use it when it reaches ns. But I bet that POJ would be equal if not for so many stalls/interrupts on the coe cold build up.

2 Likes

I think it might play smoother once they put in area damage. All those little corners and odds & ends will start taking damage making it feel more seamless.

If I want to blow up a bunch of monsters at once, I would rather play Uliana.

Speaking of which, Blizzard please buff Uliana again by increasing the power of Lion’s Claw so we don’t have to use Shenlong’s.

4 Likes

ya now uli’s is the only palm build… I mean if you ever played Inna’s palm that was a real screen explosion lol both required a lot of finesse.

I remember I got 25% in a spire in the first 30 seconds once … RG takes too long on both builds especially with shenlongs uli

how do you multi reply in posts now @balbero

ya am I the only one a lil upset none of the ethereals even tried to play into LTK … I mean granted Flying Dragon but still none of the LTK affixes were on ethereals –

monks have 3 no cooldown spirit spenders like cmonbruh gimme something

1 Like

at least uli is a lot of fun and needs a sliggt dmg factor and defense. uli shen is relatively good in killing rg but you need 5-6 mins if pushing, so its not good, just better than without shen.

wanna have moar uli

You mean EP in general

Cant agree more. This is build is terribly boring and clunky to play like firebirds.

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Just remove the fire Ally damage bonus and apply it on evey rune , frozen Ally is so fun to play and need some love.

2 Likes

I’m so glad people are finally responding to the much needed negative/warranted attention that is being brought to this build.

The build is plagued with numerous issues as you so well described, and yet people seem to just be ignoring all the problems and focusing on the “possibilities”.

It doesn’t help when certain streamers/content creators, put out videos claiming how wonderful the build is and making claims of it being “S” tier. Nearly spit out my Mt. Dew out when I heard that non-sense. It must be nice to not truly be a monk main and just worry about views and click-bait.

As a “monk-main” myself, this build is easily the clunkiest, most un-fun, inconsistent build that I have ever played. It just plain feels awful. One pack, you nuke half the mobs around you, the next CoE cycle, nothing dies but you.

As a hardcore player, this build is an absolute nightmare and in a terrible spot.

7 Likes

as a HC player I’d love to be able to play HC with sound on … how is FMOD error still a thing years later

but well put … I think at very first impression when you play this build at a non push level it feels okay because the build like at least functions somewhat properly if things die quick enough to let the other fire ally minis also explode

Also guys like Mr. Clickbait (we know who) who have done a lot of good for Diablo also don’t always know as much as a newer player might think they do. I mean compare most popular streamers to someone like Timpas or my clan leader DyS, most of them dont have the game mechanics down on the same level… now ze German streamers generally know their shhhhtfuff sVr (obv) rob northwar guys behind maxroll tend to know their stuff pretty well, dijo picks up on mechanics really quick too.

2 Likes

Damn, tried that build a little bit moar. Sometimes dmg is overwhelmingly good, sometimes there is just nothing. And since you can only deal dmg once every minute (feels like), its so much unfun. I want to actively deal dmg. That build is still crap, even when its stronger than current tr.

3 Likes

Just use inna with tr :thinking:

i mean … water and earth are cool. thx to the crudest boots theyr active duration is increased.
but the fire allies just split once -> explode -> and that was it .

with the tr-version you have at least the orotz to lower your cd so that you can activate the allies 2-3 times in one coe-cicle, making sure, that the trash is gone or at least injured, so that the next activation on fire, would be a big hit.

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Here’s a wild thought. What if we could run fire and water allies at the same time. A sort of fire n ice build. Would need to to test how many of each ally we would get. 6 of each with the split idea for both? It would be awesome to do 140s to caldesan my gear to that level.
My ns wearable gems are 146 and that from countless number of solo 1% runs.

i had to google this to find out what FMOD error was. turn down your number of sounds. thats it. thats the fix. if you are at 128, drop to 64, if at 64, drop to 32, etc.

That’s the fix for some people, not all. The most it did was reduce the lag for me, it never fixed it.

Damage wise the build is insane, it’s the best DPS build in the game, on par if not better than firebird (in solo non season). It’s fine to call it S-tier. The problem is pet AI / mechanics. Again, I hope blizzard finally makes something that is not pet-oriented, after rathma, bone spear, followers, firebird and now inna.

I dunno I kinda factor mechanics into its damage output, sure potentially it might be pretty high but I dunno if its better than firebirds

it is also purely DPS check like – there just wasnt a way to get a higher GR without more DEX and thats all I needed was more DEX cause theres no way that I’ve found at least to compensate for collision on allies when activated no MA % no AD % … best strategy is basically not to pull a lot which again limits its power even further -

Most builds in this game you find ways to play and get better at simply by playing it