After a lot of searching and trial and error I seem to have finally found a setup that works really well without "exploiting" anything.
A lot of people aren't explaining why things are good so hopefully this helps out some new players. There is also a lot of talk about what works in Act 1 but nothing farther.
Unfortunately Act 1 is pretty easy and doesn't really push you to the limits that the rest of inferno does.
Unfortunately Act 1 is pretty easy and doesn't really push you to the limits that the rest of inferno does.
One thing to keep in mind is that you can't trust your damage rating. It will lead you down the path of death and cursing at the monitor. The auxiliary damage you do will greatly increase this number and actually being alive does wonders for your dps.
- Passive: Cold Blooded: The reductions to armor and resist make glass canon not even a consideration for me. This brings me to cold blooded for a nice damage boost to my primary attack of choice.
- Ray of Frost: IMO this is the strongest direct attack we have for inferno considering the last bullet point and the fact that it slows the target. The single target can be a pain but if you're kiting and teleporting really well it is a non-issue since burning one mob at a time is the best choice anyways. The cold blood rune is pretty much the only choice as the arcane power reduction allows for a lot more sustained damage.
- Venom Hydra: This spell is a beast for damage. The frost hydra would synergize better but the limited attack radius makes it useless.
- Magic Weapon: Venom doesn't actually proc from RoF so I go with raw damage.
- Passive: Blur: Considering the other options I think this is the most valuable choice. Fast, teleport, vortex, and just plain bad cooldown timing leaves you still taking a fair amount of melee hits and this ensures they are just love taps to refresh teleport.
- Passive: Illusionist: Once you stop being one, two, or even three shot this is an amazing ability.
- Teleport Fracture: The decoys scale in usefulness with the difficulty of the pack and they are start off being pretty damn useful. I usually try not to run but to teleport when fighting a tough pack. Not only does this keep me from taking more damage directly but the decoys are always up providing a distraction.
- Diamond Skin: Rounds out the build really well
- Energy armor: Still invaluable when you're geared properly. Which we will get to next.
GEAR
- Attack speed sucks: Right now, attack speed for the most part just drains your arcane power faster. I'm not saying salvage all your IAS gear but with this build I'm trying to avoid it.
- Use a 2H: Following along the first point, go with a big slow 2H weapon with a huge top end damage. Your spells with hit/crit harder and the slow attack speed will ensure your arcane power lasts longer than you should be able to stand still.
- Resist All: This is huge. This is how you don't get one-shot. I've currently stacked about 500 resist all and was able to easily solo Belial back at the 400 mark. Make sure your upgrades have resist all, or they aren't upgrades.
- Vitality: Obviously we want a lot more vitality now. Stick with socketed helms to get 12-15% more life depending on your budget. I'm currently sitting around 43k but I'll definitely need more to keep progressing. I'm leaning towards vitality being a required upgrade item stat.
- Intellect: Another obvious choice but it's the only dps I care about currently. RoF doesn't seem to be able to crit and IAS is shit as I mentioned before.
FOLLOWER
Enchantress is hands down the best follower. I went with Charm, Powered Armor, Erosion, and Mass Control. Disorient is tempting but I think the cooldown is too long for only 2 seconds of uptime.
Thanks for reading and I hope this helps someone out.
