One of these may shock you! (insert 300 ads here)
My plan this season was to grind paragon and gems on Firebird’s, then augment and push Frozen Orb on all the boards it’s viable on (LoD, DMO, Tal’s, Vyr’s). At some point in the past week, I was rank 1 on all of those boards using Frozen Orb. Mission accomplished! I’m down to rank 2 on Tal’s now, and I’ll probably drop down the LoD board pretty soon here too.
Since I’d already done 4 sets, I thought why stop there? It’s totally possible to play Frozen Orb with Firebird’s. And funnily enough, it’s actually only a couple GRs behind Tal’s FO. Tal’s has an 8000% bonus and uses Aughild’s but no Squirt’s, and Firebird’s has a 5000% bonus and uses Squirt’s but loses Aughild’s. Then Firebird’s also gets more DR and more teleports. It comes out pretty close to even in the end, just a bit behind.
If any devs happen to be reading this, it weird that you can play a Firebird’s build without a single fire skill and completely ignoring the 6p procs and it’s still basically as strong as Tal’s. #BuffTals
And if I did Firebird’s, why not do Typhon’s Frozen Orb to complete the set? The 6p bonus is worthless, so you could just run 4p Typhon’s w/ a hydra for damage reduction and fill the other slots with Aughild’s and Crimson’s.
And I’ve always wanted to try Blackthorne’s Frozen Orb, so why not give that a go too? I even had a couple primal Blackthorne’s pieces.
The builds: D3 planner
LoD FO - GR135
decided to go with Zei’s instead of Stricken because of the Wizardspike stacking damage mechanic. Zeis’ made the rift clear much faster, but the boss kill was slower. It was doable, Perendi was about a 4 min kill on GR135 but would have been more like 3 min with a better boss (i.e. one that doesn’t keep moving out of the sweet spot during the cold phase). I also probably would have had an easier time if I had kept him in the bigger room instead of moving him into a tight corner…
DMO FO - GR135
I run Captain Crimson’s for a bit more damage, but for lower paragon or new players to the build, I’d recommend running full 6p Delsere’s, Shame of Delsere belt, and Unity. It’s less damage, but more toughness. Aughild’s is also an option.
Tal’s FO - GR132
Vyr’s FO - GR132
This clear was from earlier this week. Since then I found a few upgrades and I’ve put a couple more augs on, so I bumped up to GR134 (but I didn’t record it). GR135 should be pretty doable for me without too crazy of a fish, so I’ll probably clear a 135 and then call it good.
I’ve tried this build before but I’ve never been particularly good at pulling it off. I thought I’d try it again this season because it combines two of my favourite things (Vyr’s and Frozen Orb) and unlike Chantodo’s, this build benefits quite a bit from ethereals. I’ve actually been having a lot of fun with it. It’s tough to play and has a pretty extreme gear requirement, but it’s a very rewarding build when you are able to pull it off. My Saxtris kill in this clear was particularly satisfying. So many Orbs in the air!
Firebird’s FO - GR130
Obviously this doesn’t compete with the traditional Firebird’s builds, but it’s surprisingly strong! Stronger than you might expect. My gear here wasn’t optimal since I just borrowed my Firebird’s pieces, so I was lacking area damage on the gloves and Orb damage on the helm. I found maintaining the disintegrate stacks a bit clunky and I only did a couple rifts with the build so I hadn’t really got the hang of it and my play here was kinda sloppy.
Typhon’s FO - GR100
This was a fast clear, I could definitely push this higher if I wanted. Typhon’s FO should be about 25 GRs behind Tal’s FO in terms of DPS, so something like GR105-GR107 should be possible with some optimization and without too much effort.
Blackthorne’s FO - GR100
Similar to Typhon’s, this was a fast clear. I could definitely push this higher if I wanted. This setup has a bit higher DPS on paper compared to the Typhon’s setup I used, but this setup is a fair bit squisher. Again, something like GR105-GR107 should be possible with some optimization and without too much effort.