Mage/Dark Wizard Ragnaros Monster Mage (no Elemental Tank Abuse!)

Foreword: Alright how to start this thread? I typically don't make threads and this is my first one in the class build section but whatever, for those of you that probably don't know me I like to mess around with builds and stuff. Anyway, long story shot, I've owned a Monster for quite a while now and recently I wanted to challenge myself to try and make a viable build centered around Monster while not abusing Morph-Stardust, multiple Hive armors, or insane elemental defense tank and I finally came up with something. Originally named build obsidian due to fire/water/earth combo, decided to change it to Ragnaros as a reference to a certain fire lord in Headthstone and WoW.



Equipment:

Sizzling Shawl- (Wow a helmet that's not stardust what?) This helmet is absolutely amazing, the bonuses it provides are perfect for this build. The main stats you want to focus on are Fire Damage (max of 26%!), Spell Damage (max of 260, I'll cover more on why raw spell is great with mage later), exploding (max of 15%, exploding is good for dealing extra damage and to larger groups.)

Hetusol- Hetusol is pretty standard for most fire builds, I would assume most of you know what it is at this point. The chestplate provides mana regen, extra defense, and hp regen to counter some of the negative on the helmet and the rings. You want to attempt to get 3/4 mana regen before anything else, the bonus defense helps as well (the skill point provides extra fire damage. I would recommend trying to get 5+), as previously mentioned the hp regen is just there to counter the negatives of the helmet and rings (at the absolute most you would need 189 but I doubt you'd get worst regen on both rings and helmet).

Vaward- These leggings are insane if I'm being fully honest: 20% spell damage, 20% melee damage, and +7 to all skill points, (I doubt you'd get perfect stats though) these leggings are no joke. Their main purpose in the build is to provide the bonus skill points and the extra damage so while the agility and dexterity aren't necessary for wearing all the equipment they can be quite useful on their own.

Gaea-Hewn Boots- One of the things I wanted to utilize in this build was these boots, they fit Monster almost perfectly. From the hp to the defense and the damages to exploding these boots are amazing, not to mention the damage stats are being increased in the next patch. I don't think I really need to say much more on how amazing these boots are.

Summa (*2)- Summa is overall one of the best rings in the game in my opinion, its also one of the few with 2/4 mana regen. The main focus on these is the mana regen but the skill points can be quite useful as well, I would say you should try to get lower negative hp regen and water damage if possible but it won't hurt too much.

Diamond Solar Bracelet- This is the only item in this build from Legendary Island so if you don't like running it then this is a good thing. This bracelet is perfect for the build: 14% fire damage, 15% exploding, +8 defense, and +1500 hp, overall the bracelet is amazing as pretty much all the LI items are.

Gigabyte- The second I saw this necklace I knew I wanted it, +4 to all skill points, +800 hp, +32 hp regen, +4% melee and spell damage, +8% walkspeed, this item is amazing. If you are lucky enough to get a good id on hetusol for walkspeed this item can counter most of it, all of it in some cases.

Monster- The centerpiece of this build, some people believe Monster isn't that good for whatever reason. While not the highest damage wand in the game it makes up for it in a bit of bonus hp, defense (once its fixed to block all damage types and not just neutral), and a few other stats that help quite a bit. The only two negatives on the wand are negative intelligence and negative water damage, both of which can be countered if you get good rolls, I would say try to get low negative intelligence so you don't have to use a ton of extra skill points to reach the magic intel number of 68 that provides 50% spell cost reduction.

Sub-weapons- Personally I use a either a rainbow hive wand to deal damage to mobs that have high fire defense but have a negative in a different element. Bonder is also good for neutral damage mana regen if you need that. Requiem is also usable as a good subwand for water/curse/mana!

Equipment Replacements:

• Helmet- Believe it or not Shawl of Gaea can be used as a replacement with only a slight hit to spell damage, depending on your play style you may actually prefer this one over Sizzling Shawl.
• Chestplate- Chef Hamsey's Apron (Obvious), Corrupted Nii Plate (More hp than Hamsey's).
• Leggings- Honestly I can't think of a replacement at the moment, suggest one if you have any ideas.
• Boots- Was informed that Mantlewalkers work but you should get Gaea-Hewn asap, potentially Crusade Sabatons but mythic boots suck and are expensive so you might as well get Gaea-Hewn since its better. A very cheap possibility is Corrupted Nii Boots, very temporary.
• Rings- Concentration, Moon Pool Circlet (You may prefer this if you need more intel but don't need the other stats of Summa).
• Bracelet- Literally the tier below, if you are completely incapable of getting any LI equipment for some reason Justice or Dulipblaze.
• Necklace- Morph Ruby but you should try to get Gigabyte as soon as possible due to the buffs it gives.
• Wand- Full 5 t6 fire powder Hive Wand, potentially Fluminate Staff but I have never tried this wand so I wouldn't know.

Skill Points:
Strength- 40 (once hive armor is changed it will require 40, currently you can do it with 33.)
Dexterity- 0 (the build doesn't require any but you will get some from skill point bonuses on gear, it helps boost damage quite a bit.)
Intelligence- 68* (*you need 45 to use the helmet, 68 is the magic number to get 50% cost reduction. Add one extra point for each one on Monster i.e. my monster has -12 so I went with 80 intel)
Defense- 115 (While 115 is the bare minimum to use Monster I assume you will end up with more due to the boosts from the gear, I would say put all your remaining points into this for the bonus fire damage.)
Agility- 0 (Similar to dexterity the build doesn't require any but its still helpful and you will get some from gear bonuses.)

Final Stats:

• 7/4 Mana regen
• 16-17k HP (depending on amount on Monster)
• 115+ Defense
• 650+ Fire defense
• 550+ Water defense
• 150+ Earth defense
• -250< Thunder defense (once defense as a skill point is fixed this won't be a problem.)
• 0 Air defense (once defense is fixed this won't be a problem.)
• 24% Spell damage (with max stats)
• 460 Raw spell damage (with max stats, raw spell is also effected by the spell multiplier so for meteor its raw spell*4 due to meteor being 400%, neutral so is useful against high defense bosses.)
• 102% Melee damage (with max stats, this build is capable of both melee and spell despite being spell focused.)
• 93% Exploding (with max stats, useful for damaging groups, converts elemental to neutral so helpful against bosses.)
• 54% Thorns (with max stats, if you are evil and really want to piss people off in duels.)
• 1% Walkspeed (with max stats, even if you have negative its only about ~-4%.)
• Melee: ~1691 average for normal hits, ~2155 average for critical hits. (Max damage of 2611 without courage)
• Meteor: ~9848 average for normal hits, ~12632 average for critical hits. (max of 14916 without courage).
• Has access to courage, increases damage by 150% when active and may also buff allies.

Playstyle and tips: The overall playstyle of this build is part damage, tank, and support. The build is also capable of doing melee and spell damage. When casting spells due to limited mana regeneration I would say once your spells begin to increase in cost cast a different spell to reset the counter back to normal. Due to heal and overall fairly good defense, even better once the skill point is fixed, the build have quite good survivability. The build is intended for PvE but I would assume it can PvP as well but I would avoid thunder builds.

Boss Soloing Capabilities:

• Qira: Able to be soloed with little overall difficulty.
• Orange Wybel: I have not tested the build against wybel yet, I would assume no due to negative thunder defense. Perhaps with skill potions though.
• Legendary Island: Have not tested, would assume it's possible with skill pots and a bit of luck.
• Capable of soloing anything of lower difficulty as well for obvious reasons. (Yes even the giant rat.)

Final Word: I am quite happy that I managed to make a viable build that didn't abuse elemental defense, multiple hive items, or morph-stardust. The build could potentially be improved but I am quite satisfied with the current state as it does what I require of. Once Hive armor is changed this will still be easily usable with only slight changes to skill points if you don't already have 40 strength. Anyway this is my current build that I will be using for the foreseeable future, I am always open to suggestions on ways it could potentially be improved.

Spoiler: If you want the stats provided by WynnData BUILDer

https://wynndata.tk/s/GsM8J4

Spoiler: Tags

@Mr_Philly Helped me with getting some of the items, great guy.
@xMC_Master11x Encouraged me to put this on forums, amazing feedback.
@SilverMirror Look, a build that doesn't abuse Stardust or multiple Hive items.
@AnyoneElseIForgotToTag

 

Nice build!

 

ayy the thread is up! Nice job!

 

nice build but if

then def sp would be extremely broken

 

But the Giant Rat is harder than Qira, LI, and Wybel??????

 

Yes, hardest boss in the game in fact with a staggering 2 damage

 

A temporary replacement can be Mantlewalkers, from the Hive Fire Division, they have similar IDs and damages to Gaea-Hewn. They even provide some skill points.

 

Right now defense is practically useless outside of boosting fire damage and abusing warscream on warrior, it even says it's meant to reduce damage from all sources. It's no more "broken" than an 80% chance to dodge damage all together.

 

in pvp its pretty useless, but in pve all mobs deal some neutral and some elemental

 

It is still intended to block all damage types, blocking only neutral doesn't do much when it's only one of six types of damage.

 

if it did block all damage types, then 150 def would only take 20% of all damage and im pretty sure thats not intended but ok

 

Agility blocks all damage, you take damage 20% of the time, granted getting 150 of any specific skill point also requires quite a bit of effort.

 

im talking about def though :/, and relying on agi for survivability isnt that great

 

It still doesn't change that in its current state unless you are going for a fire build there is no sensible reason to invest in defense at all.

 

if you already have like 100 agility then putting extra stuff in defense will make u take less damage in pve, but in pvp defense SP is completely useless

 

You don't think you could beat orange Wybel but you say you might get orange cybel? Tbh I am (sadly) doubtful it could solo cybel due to -thunder.

Also maybe we could do li together soon to test out the build and double monster

 

I am fairly certain I would not be able to solo cybel do to how insane the boss is.

 

could greaves of the veneer be used?

 

Potentially, but you'd loose walkspeed and quite a bit damage, not to mention one of the main reasons for using Vaward is skill points of which greaves of veneer doesn't give that many.

 

11 or so defense and 7 strength I think.