With 2 days remaining on my subscription I wanted to go out with a bang! Being Prestige 8 fully geared to the max, I decided to walk away from my full defensive builds and make my version of a “glass cannon” on steroids. It revolves around the new Pyromancer ability Spark, which reduces your global cooldown by 0.5 seconds.
38 Warlock / 25 Pyromancer / 3 Archmage
The goal is to time your burst without giving enemy healers a chance to react to your target, utilizing Countdown and Inferno as your finishers.
Spell Rotation:
Flame Bolt -> Countdown -> Defile -> Darktouch
After casting those 4 spells, your finishing rotation should be based on whether you get an opportunity proc, health of your target, and your cooldowns. You will definitely have a plethora of spells to choose from including perfectly timed silence, Choke.
To my followers:
This is definitely a build that requires alot of practice and quick thinking.
I am so sure you will love this build that I will give you 500 platinum to equip yourself with all the best potions and consumables if you promise to give it a try for 3 weeks and report back with your results.
I’ve been playing pyro/lock/am recently (34/17/15 I think), having lots of fun with it. I like the look of your build, it would def suit someone who prefers something more lock heavy.
It’s interesting that you’re using countdown and inferno in your finishing routine, as although I’m mainly pyro I put a few extra points into lock for dark fury and draining bolt to give me a little extra burst when needed, so essentially we’re using very similar tools to finish them off.
Have fun with swtor
Ixae,
You should really try this exact spec. IMO, you should go deep into the warlock tree to get defile and all the passive boost, plus you get the 2 life savers.
I ran the mirror of that spec, but with Stormcaller instead of Pyro. I called it my ZoomBoom spec. I need to do some controlled tests, but it certainly appeared that Hastened Withdrawal was stacking with Ride the Wind.
Remember, the spec completely revolves around Spark, so you can just throw out damage FAST.
So far so good. It’s a fun, fast paced spec. Doesn’t have the crazy damage that SC does, but definitely has more survivability
Yes, it is extremely fast, hence the term “glass cannon” on steroids. I have been playing a ton lately, and am getting more and more proficient with this build.
Another great video. With any healing behind you, you’d be even more ridiculous.
I love it that you are leaving the game but you’re still selling items / making money on the auction house!
I know I know, I keep asking myself…why am I doing this? Its in my blood to make money! Was grouped with Warzdak this morning, and I am even more of a beast!
Ok I was in a Whitefall Steppes with you this evening and shadowed you for much of the match, providing you a mild/moderate amount of healing….
You finished the match with 33 kills and 0 deaths. Same build still?
Heya Trey,
Yes, same build, still trying to get comfortable with the spell rotations. It is an extremely quick build that requires some really fast thinking which at times is difficult.
I promise I promise!
More good stuff, Dissb!
You must try it!
I’ll give it a shot tonight when (if) I log on.
For all of its faults, the one thing that is really good about Rift PVP is the sheer number of viable PVP mage builds: pyrodom, chlorodom, warlock, stormcaller, necrolock, pyrocaller and now pyrolock!
Hey did your buddy ever finish his chlorodom guide he was working on?
No he didnt, he ended up quitting the game after trying to make that guide. I have half of it!
could you email it to me? I’d be interested in what was done thus far.
Nice way to go out Dissb.
Hope to see you in SWTOR. I’ll be waiting to see some SWTOR vids.
Thank you Mawed, hope we cross paths again!
SWTOR vids pls pls pls pls pls.
Any idea what class you will be playing?
Naduri,
Jedi Consular, only got to level 8 so I dont know about the mechanics after that. I know at level 10 you are supposed to choose a path, which I have no idea about.
Hi Dissb,
2 words! FRIGGING AWESOME!
I am going to be permanently switching to this spec as a p6 mage. So you can count me in for the 3 weeks and beyond.
Here are some quick thoughts from a p6 mage, who played your first spec from p1-p6.5:
* This spec has moved me from the top 25% kbs & DPS to probably top 5% and note ALL of this is ST damage. Not even spamming devouring shadows which I had to do earlier to stay up top 25%. I feel more useful.
* I really like your old spec but at lower prestiege had trouble taking down people since burst dps is very very situational. If opprotunity didn’t proc i had to kite around till it did, which could mean certain death once you run out of life savers. THis build is pretty much the same style but I can beat people without kiting as long.
* DEFINITELY has less survivablity without hastened withdrawl, detaunt, but use life leech a lot and don’t go crazy, and absolutely kite and be situationally aware and you will be fine. However it is probably the most surviablitity of the glass canon specs. I cannot play a mage without warlock tree.
* The hardest part of the spec is kiting 2-3 people. old spec you probably could have survived that with mass fear, but now you really need to have all your CDs up and your consumables. I assume this will be less of a problem for me when I am p8. I am still working on figuring out how best to survive this. best advice I can say is, ABSOLUTELY DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO NOT BE IN THIS SITUATION.
I will share more thoughts later and can send you a more extensive write up comparing the 2 if you want.
In addition, I can win most 2 vs 1 (unless I am playing vs higher ranks & they don’t purge fear) because by the time fear runs out in general I can kill my focus. In general this would have been much harder with older spec.
Again it all comes down to play style. I prefer choosing my targets and killing them 1 by 1 vs reeking mass confusing with AOE, storms, etc etc.
Oh @ p6 and also don’t expect to 1 vs 1 bleedz, or rukavi, anjumaa or any of those other crazy players on our clusture. You will still get owned by them if you aren’t watching yourself. Maybe at p8 you stand a better chance but probably not.
According to todays patch notes, you can pay me 500 plat now even on Defiant side! If you’re tricky about it…. You’d have to make a defiant, mail it to him then remail it to me…… I’m just messing with you, was hoping to get a few days break from farming Basiliskweed….
Anyway, I’m on day 5, and so far my findings have been reported in other comment threads. The only time I have had an urge to change back has been in a few warfronts that we were being rolled by a vastly superior team and I got tired of dying, but I stuck it out. I haven’t switched roles at all for anything since saturday. I may never switch back, we shall see….
done a few runs and it feels fun, the survival isn’t that bad considering the dmg you can do with it and still run around the field. Just gotta get used to the damned keys since i used 1-4 keys for dots on lock and firespells on pyro, gonna be hard to get used to keys.
Yes, there are alot more keybinds to use in this build. And to make matters worse, its extremely fast. Good luck.
I’ve been fiddling with the opening rotation a bit and have adjusted it for a little more backend burst. I moved Flame Bolt to the end, and bumped up dark touch (for more charge before defile) this seems to take people a bit more by surprise, very soft targets are less likely to run after the second spell, and it puts harder targets into a deeper hole after the initial rotation.
Countdown > Dark Touch > Defile > Flame Blot
I’ve had a bit more reliability taking down tough targets with a single rotation this way, especially caster healers, with a finishing rotation (minus opportunity procs) of Draining Bolt > Dark Fury > Choke > Inferno
One risk is that a CC right at the beginning when starting at 0 charge will end the defile early and F up the rotation, but in that scenario you will likely be looking for a new position anyway. Sometimes I’ll just throw out a few random Dark Touches before I get started to get a charge buffer.
First, wanted to say thanks for the video’s, whether I always thought your specs were the best or not, you gave well informed advice to a community without ego or arrogance. And that can be hard to come by in the mmo world.
Secondly, this spec is amazing, and no one should doubt it. I was the first thing i tried when this last patch launched and I haven’t tried much else. Two other other things i’d like to mention about the build. I don’t think it’s as glass cannon as many others do. Basically your trading mass fear(and maybe some of the longer CD defensive’s out of AM) for Burning shield/flicker/and maybe fire shield (i spec that in my build). That’s a pretty even trade imo. It took me awhile to get used to not having MF, but now it’s not so big of a deal. Flicker is super handy.
The final thing I want to mention, and you eluded to it in your video is internalize charge. I’m just starting to implement it, and it takes this build to an insane place if you can time it right and not urn through your charge on accident. Cheers.
luchiban
Thanks for the kind words. Initially, I thought it was a glass cannon spec not having the extra survivability from the AM tree but you are absolutely correct, it is not a glass cannon at all. Flicker is the absolute best, it can be used in so many ways that it can be a topic on its own. That has always been the trick, managing your charge by utilizing Internalize Charge. By the time I did my last WF, I felt like my skill level in this department was a 4 out of 10, which means there was lots of room for improvement.
I tell you playing with Spark the last month of Rift, and then moving on to SWTOR I feel like I am playing in slow motion. Its awful!