I had a question re: a fourth cube slot and the potential of bringing back one of my favorite wizard builds (possibily with a different set than tal rashas… b/c ya know… tal rasha lol).
There use to be a build that stacked a bunch of aps an DDs to use spectral blades to dash around like a ninja with fragment of destiny and ether walker.
Can something like this still be done? Even it’s for t16’s? Maybe using DMO or one of the other sets for damage?
I’m terrible at theory crafting but was wondering if any of the gurus here actually has messed with a Spectral blades build or something similar.
Spectral Blade did almost okay damage back in the day for T10 or T13. The problem is it hasn’t got any other multipliers to keep up. All or most of our other builds have had buffs since then, but Spectral Blade hasn’t had any other multipliers added.
It’s actually further behind Vyr’s/FO/Twisters etc. now than it was back in the day, because everything else got buffed. It’s not necessarily weaker than it was, but the goalposts shifted. T16 was added, we farm higher GRs now, our other builds got buffed, Spectral Blade stayed largely the same.
I suppose there was the DMO buff, and Squirt’s was added, so it made it a bit stronger. But DMO isn’t very good fro T16 farming (bubbles make it too slow to be efficient), and I don’t think Spectral Blade would really do enough damage for T16 unless you are very high paragon. T13 or T14 might be more realistic.
Hang on did FoD always do 300% more damage? I’m remembering back then it only being like 30-50% so that’s something, even better I think that was additive to the skill and not multiplicative.
I remember being pretty high up on the leaderboards doing a 89 with it, but obviously this was a long time ago which could be a great thing or really bad thing. Like it might have been so long ago before all the GR changes, meaning that 89 would be like a 70 (so what you’re saying with the T13 stuff).
Eh I’d say with all the buffs lately go for it, might be a good off-meta sleeper, but obviously like TinneOnnMuin said there’s better choices that have gotten more love since then.
It’s 200% more damage. Triple damage = 200% more damage.
And yes. I believe it used to be 150-200%. Now it’s a fixed 200% with the hydra item change.
EDIT: Although I think you’re right, there might have been a time when it was 30% Spectal Blade skill damage or something, like Slorak’s. That was a long time ago though, and there were way smaller set multipliers then. You definitely weren’t going GR89 then, when you did GR89 it would have been with the 150-200% version.
Right, and yeah maybe hmm, I just didn’t think it was that long ago when it didn’t have the 150-200% but then there was the GR change. That’s why I am uncertain if it could potentially be a GR100 build now or not.
Just checked, and it was buffed to 150-200% Spectral Blade damage in 2.4.0 (season 5), the same patch DMO was buffed. Solo wizard NA GR record in season 4 was like GR78 with Vyr’s, so I’m going to say your GR89 was definitely after it was buffed to 150-200%. Otherwise you beat the record by a full 11 GRs
Right lol but I mean hey so DMO was like what back then 2800% lol, something really sad, but again this was before the GR change too which made things harder for lower damage builds like this one so yeah it’s probably around the ranges you mentioned with mayybe surprising into the 90’s at max, which by today standard would be very very behind.
Yeah, DMO has been buffed from 2000%, then 3800%, then 8500%, now 12500%. Plus Squirt’s was added, and FoD builds have always been able to generate good shielding.
Need about 5x more damage to do 10 GRs higher. I think between the DMO buffs and Squirt’s, it’s gained at least that much. I’d guesstimate into the low 100s probably, but those would be grindy clears, it won’t be speedfarming GR100 or anything.
Right and the GR scaling change I was talking about actually did occur in that season (wow talk about a game changing patch!) so the 89 clear is when monster damage was reduced, at the same time several things got buffed. So yeah definitely low 100’s, definitely struggle vs just erasing things with other skill/builds.
So what they should have done is keep the SB mod and just add triple damage on primary, giving SB a 6x mod.
Even then, still missing a mod item or two to make it viable with todays buffs which is likely by design. I don’t think Blizzard ever intended us to have a good primary spammer, they always want us using arcane or being in archon lol.
Since they changed FoD to all Signature Skills you can use Electrocute or Magic Missile now. Those two skills really require updated items (Mykens, Mirrorball, Camaral, etc.) but once they provide us with that we might actually see some fun builds around them. This doesn’t even require much work:
An excellent item is Shame of Delsere. This belt simply needs a “sig skills deal triple damage” feature, just like FoD. That small change alone would be a great addition already. Now can you picture playing FoD+SoD with a refreshed Mirror Ball that grants Seeker/Charged Blast and also increases the damage in addition to the current extra missles? I want that, devs… just do it!
I fail to understand why they don’t pick up such simple things. It would be so damn simple to bring some old stuff back on track. Some damage buffs, a little rune here and there, and bam. Instead we get weird crap like Winter Flurry…
Wow! Thanks all for the great responses and discussion. It’s unfortunate that there isn’t some method to really make this decent with current itemization. I was hoping something to do with Typhoon and hydra with the updates. Or the dmo damage buffs… but all the discussion here makes sense.
Yeah i wish they would buff Shame of Delsere would be buffed as it would basically turn the build “on” and at least usable for speed farming T16.
Well, there is a Typhon Hydra build that uses Fragment of Destiny + Spectral Blades. That’s actually one of our better builds.
Just don’t expect Spectral Blade to do any damage. Typhon’s doesn’t buff it. Spectral Blade is solely there to buff up your hydras (via Fragment of Destiny updated affix) and generate shields (Barrier Blades + Deflection with attack speed bonus from Fragment of Destiny and maybe also Shame of Delsere = gigantic shield stacks).
Thanks Tinne! Do you happen to have a link to a character of yours or maybe a build guide for this build? This sounds like something that might be interesting to play even though I’m not the one dealing the damage with blades. It seems like the playstyle of dashing around like a battle mage might be preserved which I really enjoy.
You don’t need the channeling + Deathwish for T16 if you don’t like that aspect of it, you could just slot a different skill + item there (e.g. Aether Walker). That’ll really only come into play for higher pushes.
Yes, Spectral Blade can deal with T16. Even Electrocute or Magic Missile can. Don’t know about Shock Pulse. But it should, too. You need Echoing Fury, Spectral Blade, Shame of Delsere, Depth Diggers, Squirts Necklace, Simplicity Strength gem. Go with LoD Gem and Ancients or use DMO. F.e. Electrocute has to be done with LoD you can play ranged or melee. For the further one you are using Mykens Ball with chain lightning or Fork Lightning melting through groups of enemies and for the latter you use Arc Lightning and Orb of Infinte Depth.
