I see there are no increased damage to any skills in the firebird build. In the cookie cutter build, what skill does the main damage? EB, Flame blades from mirror images or disintegrate or is it kind of all three skills doing massive damage?
Neither skill deals the actual damage if we are honest, it’s the firebird proc that cremates things. But to answer your question - Disintegrate deals more or less no meaningful damage at all… beyond T13 it only tickles the enemies. Explosive Blast actually causes damage by triggering Combustion. But the brunt of the damage will be caused by your Mirror Images (well, that is, if they actually attack and don’t idle or run around like headless chickens).
ok, so you cant get extra damage from bonus to the flame blades because its the mirror images and not the player casting it?
Well it’s true that Skill damage bonus is essentially useless, but the reason is different. Mirror Images do benefit from those, but the damage is not dealt by the skill. This is important. Firebird deals damage through a proc effect (Ignite) and there are only a select few things that can actually increase your damage output on a proc effect:
- your MainStat (obviously - the more you have, the better)
- general damage multipliers (e.g on Firebird 6-piece, Endless Walk, Aughild, Bane of the Trapped, Bane of the Powerful, Orb of Infinite Depth, Squirt’s Necklace, Power Pylon)
- certain conditional passives (e.g Audacity, Elemental Exposure, Unwavering Will, etc. )
- strangely enough: “Fire skills deal xx% more damage” affixes on gear. One could think it should not work, but the wording is misleading… the actual effect is “Increases your Fire damage dealt by xx%” - that’s why it works
- Convention of Elements (Fire phase)
- +Mn-Max damage affixes on jewelry
- everything that increases CHC/CHD (Critical Hit chance and damage)
- Taeguk, Mantle of Channeling and Deathwish (while casting Disintegrate)
- debuff effects that increase damage taken by enemies (e.g. from Frost Nova,Slow Time, certain Follower skills)
- your total Cooldown Reduction % (through Captain Crimson set)
- Tasker and Theo (increase attack speed of oets - works for Mirror Images)
- Speed Pylon: also increases attack speed (affects Mirror Images)
- Strangely enough: Channeling pylon - because it immensely increases CDR % (Captain Crimson). It also let’s you cast EB very fast
- Indirectly: Shield Pylon - since it also protects the Images
Now, you might think that legendary effects from the items “Shame of Delsere” and “Fragment of Destiny” will affect the damage output because they increase the attack speed of your signature skills (including Spectral Blades) and thus let you hit enemies at a higher pace. Well, nice thought and it’s actually true, you will notice a difference in damage output - since it will be significantly… lower! The reason is twofold:
DON’T cast Spectral Blades yourself. Never, ever do that! Period. This gimps your damage because you loose the general multipliers from Deathwish, Taeguk and/or Mantle of Channeling that way and the effect is huge. Not to mention your Combustion stacks begin to dwindle… even worse: those two items only increase YOUR attack speed with Spectral Blades. Unlike Tasker your Mirror Images won’t benefit from them. Too bad…
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You can do it once, just before casting your MI, to reduce the castanimation and give them a tiny Buff.
But yea.
Dont cast it, to deal dmg “on your own”. That would only cost you Dmg instead of dealing it.
Short answer. Primary skills apply thorns.