STILL TALKING ABOUT IT. lol.
I’d like this suggestion as it would be REAL channel build instead of a build that uses channel just to prop up another skill with Deathwish. Missed this suggestion in the PTR allthough I surmise that now it would be to late.
Still, I’d love to see this suggestion made even now or in the next PTR so it might be picked up then.
Dupes are not getting full benefit from IAS triggered by PE gem.
I’m pretty sure I went above 4 ApS multiple times per fight in a GR 120. However, when I stop blading and listened to the dupes, their blade attacks were no where near as frenzied my own. The one fun thing is the dupes can crit and trigger PE across a wide area giving big short-term boosts of IAS to the Wizard. However, their benefit is severely diminished by their terrible AI.
- Running away in the middle of a fight.
- Just randomly stop attacking for no reason.
- Spawning and standing still and not attacking at all for seemingly no reason.
- Randomly attacking targets and random target switching.
2 Likes
I ran a few speeds with high CDR and Mirror Images - it’s pretty close to being there. If Blizzard would only improve the AI as you mention and make them aggressive or if you could get them to target an enemy or area you clicked on, it would be game-on.
They’re absolute beasts while they’re alive and hitting something with blades.
But so much of the time they’re off in the weeds and they don’t last long and when you recast there’s a pretty bad interruption to your rotation. With EB, for example, you can be running/casting, cast EB, and have no interruption. But with MI, it’s a pause-cast so you stop whatever you’re doing to cast before you can resume. And this is unforunately a big problem for mindless speeds where you put skills on numlock auto and cruise like Rats.
But if Blizzard made the dupes fast and aggressive or there was a mechanic to attack what you clicked on, it might be able to become a viable speed meta.
Right now we’re running the double archon speed comp that Wudijo posted up and it’s been a lot of fun. Those EU guys ran up to GR140 speeds I think with the double archon comp. It’s a pretty nice comp.
But great idea with the mirror images - it’s a real shame that the AI is just wonky.
And Firebird will unfortunately be nerf’d - it’s just too strong at everything right now. Hopefully they will just turn the power-level knob down a little without changing what people like.
And lastly, if we looked at Class archetypes like what each class represents, I’m not sure Blizz wants Wiz to usurp Necros as “Summoner” kings in the speed meta where you’ve got Mirror Images flying around everywhere instead of Necros and their Skeletal Mages etc. But who knows.
I don’t think they will do it. They seem to be dead set on making channeling skills useless as a damage dealer.
Etched Sigil - used to autocast Spender X (but at least granted a general buff)
wrEtched Sigil - same, but only Twisters
No channeling skill has a dedicated legendary except outdated trash tier stuff
Firebird - only used for Igniting and unlock free Teleport
Archon - DW is only used to gain Archon stacks
Going by the latest changes you can see a picture getting clearer. When was the last time we could actually play a channeling build? I mean a build capable of dealing significant damage with the channeling skill itself?
As such I wouldn’t bet on the chance to see a meaningful Disintegrate buff as a part of the FB set. Heck I want it, I truly do. Something like Disintegrate deals X% more damage per Combustion stack or just a flat % increase on the (2) piece.
You know what… I’m gonna make a topic though I know it will be fruitless.
There, you have it:
Tested a few things:
Decoys don’t proc FB6 combust.
Images do proc FB6 combust for:
- Flame Blades
- Conflagrate; though mirror ball does not give them 3 missiles.
- Fire Bolts
- Heat Wave
- Gale Force: Think it’s one proc per twister per target though, not per tick.
- Scorch: only the initial direct damage hit procs.
Images do not proc FB6 combust for:
- Meteor Shower
- Blazar
- Apocalypse
- Hydra
- FB 2pc Meteor proc from MI
- Archon (Combustion) does not cause them to combust explode into little mini archons
Don’t even cast:
- Sparkflint
- Forked Lightning
I was surprised at how often and how many targets were FB6 combust proc’d via MM:Conflagrate. Makes me wonder if there is something there if they could benefit from Mirrorball, and if Mirrorball was more beneficial.
Meteor shower and Heat Wave would be cool to see work with FB6 combust, but would require an AI adjustment. The images only cast it once each, same with Twister and Scorch.
Flame blades seems the best option right now for FB6 MI play.
3 Likes
I was just trying to test this out, and seeing them run around like chickens and not casting chain lightning almost made me cry…
1 Like
Hmm, now that you’ve checked MI, how about Haunt of Vaxo?
Fixing a bit of their AI and giving us an attack command mechanic would be enough. I think the devs don’t want to deep dive into the MI code to make them proper (they’ve had like a decade to do so). What they should do is apply fixes to the Vicalyke wiz hat. Right now every time that hat drops I cringe and I have to fight the urge to just exit of the game. The hat should give the images some toughness, hp, a bit of damage, a duration extension, and convocation. They most likely don’t need to have WD pet level of raw damage output on the hat.
Dupes are defensive at best. Wiz won’t be summoner king of anything given the design of MI. Necro should not be the speed king forever, never being eclipsed, and never having any other competitive speed compositions.
Don’t be foolish. They will never alter skills at this point of the game. They are only tweaking numbers, that’s what they did the last patches too. But it would be nice, indeed.
1 Like
I think Vaxo clones use physical damage attacks. I could be wrong so its worth looking into.
Haunt of Vaxo clones are terrible in comparison to Mirror Images. For starters, unlike Mirror images, the Haunt of Vaxo don’t use the same skills that you have selected. Then for the most part they rarely cast any fire spells to help proc the 6 piece effect of Fire Bird set. In fact I mostly only saw them casting shocking pulse - piercing orbs and arcane orb - obliteration (I think). Factoring all of that along with the item’s icd, they aren’t worth using.
Now if they buffed and improved Haunt of Vaxo (make it similar to the season 22 clones and increase their duration), then it may make a powerful asset.
@Cratic:
Wouldn’t it be more effective to run FoD + Shame + (Trap/PE/Gogok) for the duplicates build? With good density my Wiz can reach over 4 ApS. At 4 ApS with FoD + Shame = frenzied blade attacks and buffed deflection shield. The frenzied blade attacks + the 4 dups should be way more FB-6 triggers. The dups don’t attack nearly as fast as the player character even with FoD + Shame + TnT + PE gem stacks. Its a much more involved build with recasting dups, teleporting, refilling combustion stacks, and blading.
I’ve found it’s better to either go pure self cast Spectral Blades, or use Deathwish and Tasker and Theos to buff Mirror Images. The build without MI is still better though, with more shielding, faster stricken stacking, and you can always aim for elites.
2 Likes
I’m suggesting self cast blading + dups. The dups can buff your iAS via PE gem, which is much higher than just using Gogok.
Not sure I understand, I was using Pain Enhancer with the self cast version. My point is Mirror Images isn’t worth it unless you are going to commit to channeling Deathwish for them.
The reason dups aren’t attacking as fast is because they don’t benefit from Fragment of Destiny or Shame of Delsere, so no 2x attack speed bonus.
2 Likes
Ok. There are two builds we are referring to.
1 - MI build where the dups do the heavy lifting and they do the FB-6 triggering.
2 - Flame Blades build where the player character does FB-6 triggering.
I’m suggesting that we combine the two in a build where the dups are used to trigger FB-6 and PE which can super buff the player character’s IAS and FB-6 trigger rate.
I agree with Lexyu. In my limited testing trying out MI in the extra skill slot of the primarily non channeling blades setup, mirror image has less potential than spellsteal, or even pinpoint barrier.
There is very little synergy between the two setups. The deathwish MI needs CDR to recover the images quickly, and the AS from your proposed Hybrid does not increase the MI AS. TnT can’t be placed in the cube there cause you need Aquila to maintain Squirts (and aug+crimson is better for the non shielding blade setup).
For this same reason it is difficult to Hybrid Hydra with MI, even though they both use TnT.
I did try out the MI helm with the blade+MI setup, but it felt like too much damage loss with the non shielding version.
Feels better just to focus on one or the other.
1 Like
@Bossdog, nice idea tried it a little and had some fun very chaotic sometimes.
@Rage about area damage, I did some testing and kept main stat, chc and chd at low levels and static. Area damage was at 142%, in T16 everything melts no matter, tried a GR. Then I swapped gear and reduced area damage to 0 instead I had IAS rolls on most pieces. I had some IAS on the AD test aswell, the loss of AD didn’t make any difference.
So a very careful “confirm” to what Lexyu already has stated.
Now to all, how heavy should we go on investing on IAS on gear. Some pro tips please. 
Great points and this is a push build from seasonal PTR that addresses some of the issues we’ve been talking about with dupes dying so fast and not targeting what we want them to:
https://maxroll.gg/d3planner/688408251
Enforcer Gem - Big survivability increase for dupes with 90% DR and max +60% dmg. This replaces Gogok for example because Gogok’s 15% CDR and AS seems less important than buffing the dupe beasts. Also there is still strong CDR on gear along w/ Crimson’s 20% CDR and Evo’s 20% etc - so CDR is still fine, especially w/ CDR’s diminishing returns.
Switch to ranged playstyle - Zei’s and Power Hungry replace Trapped and Audacity as usual going to ranged. And this is something that may also be happening but not sure haven’t tested much - when you pop MI and the dupes spawn if you immediately teleport to the edges, they seem to stick better to the mobs because you’re not around them. It’s almost like they kind of think about following you sometimes if you’re close but if you’re distant they get to work doing their beast business more quickly - could be off on this though.
Mantle of Channeling and Krelms bracers replace 3pc Aughilds (w/ Tasker’s cubed). Can also go 3pc Aughilds w/ MoC cubed (with no Taskers at all).
Otherwise similar to previous incarnation posted in here where there are a couple of swing skills. With this push build, it’s MW/Deflection but Frost Nova here also decent to CC pack for dupes and keep things calmed down. And Blur or Elemental Exposure kind of a swing passive too. Helm gem could be changed to topaz too if AP dropping off but with Gogoks out, diamond seems good.