TL;DR at the end
After playing a firebird wizard almost exclusively since the start of the season, I have to say, this build has an extremely poor quality of life because of 2 reasons:
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Mirror image AI is… just horrific.
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The build has 0 cc immunities, is VERY squishy vs physical damage, and it requires you to stand still and channel in MELEE to deal any damage at all.
I understand that this game is not in active development, so I don’t expect the mirror image AI will be fixed, even though their incosistency makes this build ridiculously volatile.
However, the second issue is something that could be fixed very easily -> Deathwish and the ‘Unwavering Will’ skill passive could have a lingering duration, rather then dropping instantly the moment the player is CC’d, moved or anything like that. It doesn’t have to be long, even 1.5s like Taeguk has would help.
Now I know what you’re thinking: “Firebirds are already OP and you’re asking for a buff?!!”
Well, let me tell you, this is a really squishy build with pets dumber than WD gargs. Does it deal high damage? Sure, but it’s so incredibly inconsistent and unreliable, and when you are pushing SOLO, it’s unbelievably frustrating. This is what pushing with the OP Firebirds looks like:
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You need a rift with mobs that don’t make you die in 2 seconds like goat spearchuckers, succubi+morlu, sand wasps and many others, as well as all large mobs that knockback like yetis etc, because they just make the game unplayable for you.
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You need elites that don’t have - frozen, nightmarish, knockback, arcane enchanted, thunderstorm, teleporter, juggernaut, shielding, as all of these make it impossible for you to deal damage fast enough for it to be worth it. If they’re ranged and move away from you, you skip as well.
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Even if all the conditions above are met, you have to pray that your mirror images turn in the right direction and actually deal effective damage, rather than hit the 1 mob on the edge of the pack.
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Once mirror images inefficiently clear all the trash and all that’s left is the elite, you now have a 25% chance that mirror images either: 1. run back and forth between the pack and their leash range, 2. stand still and do nothing (yes, seriously, you can literally spawn them in melee range of the RG and they just stare at it), 3. run away to face a wall and do nothing, or 4. they deal damage to the target you want
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On top of all the conditions above, you are trying to time the damage of your illusions with CoE rotation. You can take a guess at which times you get knockbacked, feared, get thunderstorm/arcane laser on top of you, and when your illusions get frozen.
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And for some goddamn reason, mirror images don’t get CC immunity from shield pylon, so it’s like 20% useful (yay I can’t get knockbacked or feared but my illusions are so I’m doing 0 damage!). And I might be wrong on this, but it FEELS like they don’t get attack speed from a speed pylon either, so that one is effectively worthless, and it’s actually even worse because it’s giving CC diminishing returns to your frozen nova.
But hey, FB wiz is OP. You know, when it hits that 1 in 500 circumstance, where everything works out and it can actually deal proper damage.
TL;DR Please give Deathwish and Unwavering Will a short duration like Taeguk, so they don’t drop the second you get CC’d or forcefully moved.