Barrage Wonder Wanderer – how to DEMOLISH maps (1.3.X)

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Sonido wrote:

Hello,

I've got a few questions.

What is the best way to raise my dps? I'm currently sitting at 680 EK dps.. It feels pretty decent for groups, but on single target it takes a long time.

Is it normal that i have 75% crit (with max power charges) on barrage, but only 25% on ek?

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ImoK wrote:

Is the physical route still viable with berek's grip? (5% lifeleech against frozen enemies) and since they're always frozen on crit, you will always get the 5% extra freeing up the life leech gem slot.

It worked before but I haven't played in months.

Regards.

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LeMing wrote:

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Sonido wrote:

Hello,

I've got a few questions.

What is the best way to raise my dps? I'm currently sitting at 680 EK dps.. It feels pretty decent for groups, but on single target it takes a long time.

Is it normal that i have 75% crit (with max power charges) on barrage, but only 25% on ek?

It is normal. Wand base crit chance is about 10%, base EK crit chance is only 5%.
The best way of increase EK damage is to use 21 level EK (20%Q) and remove chain for single target fight. You can have other 4L with barrage + CoC + EK + summon skelly or Arc for single target.

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ImoK wrote:

Is the physical route still viable with berek's grip? (5% lifeleech against frozen enemies) and since they're always frozen on crit, you will always get the 5% extra freeing up the life leech gem slot.

It worked before but I haven't played in months.

Regards.

It should work :)

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AgentKay wrote:

Can we have a discussion on how Ice Spear is in the Elemental version? I'm leveling one with Arctic breath and Fireball, but I have not yet turned on the build.

The wiki suggests that damage is comparable with the other two. From what I've seen, it loses in small aoe explosions but it gains in auto pierce or at range 95% crits. The pierce on the tree is useless for the pierce portion, but could also massively buff the crit portion, although I have never been impressed by any form of pierce except Chain, any comments on this would also be welcome.

If it replaces fireball the ice scaling from the tree becomes better, and so does a Cold Doryani's Invitation/Cold leech crafted from Catarina. Also the quality bonus (60% projectile speed) is much better than Fireball's ignite chance. More ice damage also means more freezes/chills, but also a greater weakness to cold resisting enemies (Sodding buffed Mervail grumblegrumblegrubmle).

Ice spear also has a much higher base crit chance at 7% (AB is 5 and FB is 6) making the scaling form our tree and gear better. Even before the crit portion it will crit a lot more, and in the crit portion we should be hitting 95% crits easily. Being a projectile also means our entire tree is relevant (unlike arc or ball lightning which are other popular options).

Also, with a bit of leech from either crafting a wand or Doryani's Invitation (both?), could potentially replace LL gem for loads more damage, although reflect then becomes a problem again.

God dammit why can't there just be positives? Would make deciding so much easier XD. My plan is to level all three, use the two I like best for most content and possibly the third instead of LL for when I need the damage more than the reflect protection. If I had to guess it seems to me that Ice spear has leapfrogged Fireball and Arctic breath in effectiveness and should at least replace one, unsure of which but I would probably take out Fireball. Note I have not tested anything, this is just my speculation based off my calculations and previous experience.

EDIT: Another option to consider is Freezing pulse, main positive being that it shotguns VERY well, able to hit all 5 at much longer ranges than any other spell, and hits much wider areas, plus the pierce makes AoE better. Bad sides are lower damage, lower crit (than ice spear), damage at range is piss poor, pierce on tree is useless, and without good investment into projectile speed the range is not that great. Basically I think despite the buff its still not a great option, but probably worth at least investigating, that shotgun range is just silly.

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AgentKay wrote:

Ice spear is BAD with chain, it reduce the damage and chain will never proc on the pierce portion. And the pierce on the tree is BAD with the EK build in general because of chain (same reason). Because of this Ice spear is probably not a good idea on that build, if you really want freezes I'd say Arctic breath as that at least benefits fully from chain.

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AgentKay wrote:

Ice spear is BAD with chain, it reduce the damage and chain will never proc on the pierce portion. And the pierce on the tree is BAD with the EK build in general because of chain (same reason). Because of this Ice spear is probably not a good idea on that build, if you really want freezes I'd say Arctic breath as that at least benefits fully from chain.