I wasn’t expecting to give feedback this PTR, but the changes to Firebird are so good in comparison to the trainwreck that we had last patch, I have to say something of praise.
Not as much mechanics testing from me, but I have solid hours playtesting the GR speed and push Firebird 6pc Combustion builds. Granted these are still channeling builds, being with Deathwish and no viable non channeling, non archon alternatives in play. However I feel this is okay. At least it is a fun channeling build!
In particular, this push build excites me (~GR137+@2kp capable):
https://maxroll.gg/d3planner/726387147
EDIT: Credit and thanks to [@LexyuTV] for sharing some of the specifics of his push build. I’ve adapted it slightly. EDIT2: …and just realized EF stacks are additive with gear, not weapon. Will possibly adjust attack speed for this build a little.
also, the Solo GR Speed build (~GR117+@2kp, 3-5m clears):
https://maxroll.gg/d3planner/418338540
Echoing Fury feels so good in combination with Zodiac, EB. The higher attack speeds let you proc zodiac more often, encouraging you to retain the bonus by continually killing enemies. This is one of the difficult, but fun challenges of the build.
Higher AS is necessary to push the limits of this proc based build. The attack speed is multi purpose:
- Faster application of Flame Ward Combustion damage instances.
- Generate combustion stacks quicker.
- Faster zodiac procs.
- Faster stricken stacking.
- Faster shielding generation (for defense).
I really enjoy the give and take of the Combustion stacks. It introduces a game mechanic that the player not only has to maintain, but moreso actively decide whether they want to degen stacks to burst enemies down, or stack up to retain damage and AoE potential.
The fact that FB6 consumes combustion stacks also creates a damage arc that is not linear, but in fact, cyclical, similar to Vyr6, except the player has much more control over where their stack count is, and how often (the frequency) at which it cycles. Cyclical in nature, but also variable in nature.
I like the pacing at which stacks build up and degen. No changes needed there.
Surprisingly, the Igniting enemies is also engaging. New summons, Illusions, fresh trash all need to be newly ignited to deal damage to them. Applying Ignite to these new enemies via Disintegrate channel feels better because it is dual purpose: also regenerates combustion stacks. The ignite mechanic 4pc toughness is present but not overbearing like it was on the previous version of Firebirds. It’s super smoothe, love it!
Love the mobility! Glad to see you’ve listened, and baked in some mobility with Firebird’s. I feel the current implementation of reducing Teleport cooldown based on stacks is good. It really gives Firebirds the ability to move through the rift quickly, but at the cost of maintaining the AP/s of Disintegrate. This creates diversity in builds somewhat, because for GR speeds you want more consistent resource (Hergbrash+EW), whereas in GR push, you can give up some resource, since you’ll be rift fishing anyways (and go Capt. Crimsons+CoE).
As to mobility in general: in the future I’d really appreciate base reduced cooldown for teleport, reduced GCD for teleport, or inclusion of other mobility mechanics in sets.
In particular, I feel Movespeed would be a great addition to the wizard’s toolkit. Enhancing other sets to add movespeed mechanics or adding more movespeed to Illusionist, Scramble, Sleek shell, or other items, etc. would be great.
Now for the bad:
FB4 multiplier at a minimum has to move to the 6pc. I would suggest however, as some fellow wizard players also have, to leave some small level of multiplier on the 4pc. This will keep the freedom of going Tal6/FB4 an option, while limiting those build’s power to less than pure FB6’ power.
As to the builds’ overall power, thus far I’ve cleared GR137 with FB6 in ~12.5m time @ ~25k INT, 3.8kp, and will probably clear at least GR138-139 with more rift fishing (echoing fury feeds off of small mob types and RGs with adds; getting these consistently takes a lot of luck).
It’s definitely a very affix hungry build, as it needs quite a lot of AS,CDR, and RCR. This means it requires higher paragon to typically function or excel at the highest level.
It could go either way. Currently I feel compared to other Wizard builds, the damage of FB6 is in a good spot. However, if you compare to last season’s Twister Wizard, or builds of other classes, especially Necro, Crusader, and Demon Hunter, then I’d say FB needs an increase from 4000% to 5000% combined multiplier (25% increase).
In particular I am sad that we won’t be able to play Twister this upcoming season to it’s fullest potential, because we are losing the cube slot, which it needed for multipliers. Granted, we get a free Flavor of TIme, which offsets this loss some, but LoD Twister will still be losing a full ~6GR levels come next season.
As other testers have commented, many skills don’t proc the FB6 bonus as consistently. I suggest looking into these skills that are not working as readily to proc the FB6 damage instance, and see if anything can be done to increase their proc chance or ability. While at the moment this has worked out well, since channeling is still king, in the future it might not be, and the ability of these other skills to proc FB6 will be of greater importance.
In particular, I was hoping to play around with Hydra proccing the firebirds combustion. Though, as noted above, many other players want support for signature play, FB archon, etc.
To conclude: for a first iteration, I am very happy with the utility, function, mobility, and interest the new FB6 provides. At a minimum, the multiplier needs to move to the 6pc, and I’d suggest taking a look at the power level to assess, as well as look into supporting some skills that appear to not be proccing as consistently in the future.
