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Firebird Mirror Image Wizard Guide

Last Updated: January 8th 2024

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Disclaimer: This guide is the Season 24 Guide for the Firebird Mirror Images Build which does not exist anymore. For up-to-date Firebird guides, go to the Firebird Flame Blades or the Firebird Explosive Blast Guides!

Introduction

Firebird Mirror Images Solo Push
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Firebird's Finery has been one of the weakest and most clunky sets in the game for quite some time, having to juggle between three Fire abilities to benefit from its set bonuses. Comically enough, the strongest Firebird build iterations have been using non-Fire abilities! Yet, Firebird's Finery had its glory days of dominating the META as a Trash Killer from Season 12 to 15 using Meteor Star Pact alongside channeling multipliers like Deathwish.

Patch 2.7.0 and Season 23, however, brought us a complete rework of this set. Firebird's Finery always had a strong fantasy around the Phoenix theme with the (2) Bonus "rising from the ashes" cheat death and the Fire element with an Ignite DoT.

But this new rework created a specific playstyle based around channeling Disintegrate to Ignite monsters and build Combustion stacks with the (4) Bonus. These stacks are then used to buff our Ignite DoT when hitting monsters with another Fire ability, on top of reducing our Teleport Cooldown. In Season 24, Ethereals comforted Firebird in its position of strongest build in Diablo III, especially with Mang Song's Lesson allowing the build to annihilate everything as showcased here.

This, however, comes at the price of not being able to benefit from the best way to scale our damage in density: Area Damage (AD) does not work with the Ignite DoT! As a result, we stack Cooldown Reduction and use Pets to maximize our hit count and the resulting Ignite DoT ticks. To get as many (6) Bonus Ignite procs as possible, this iteration utilizes Deathwish in conjunction with Mirror Images casting Flame Blades for us (see Mechanics). Let's get into it!

High DPS ✔
Unique Playstyle ✔
Fast Paced Gameplay ✔
Easy to Get Starter Gear ✔

❌ Frustrating Pet AI
❌ Channeling Playstyle
❌ Scales Poorly with Density
Vulnerable to Crowd Control

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • The Firebird's Finery set provides 80% damage reduction to our character as well as a 5,000% damage multiplier and the central Ignite DoT mechanic.
  • Deathwish is a staple for any channeling Wizard build, providing us with a 325% separate damage multiplier.
  • Orb of Infinite Depth grants us a massive 80% damage reduction and a 40% separate damage multiplier when using Explosive Blast.
  • Ring of Royal Grandeur allows us to complement Firebird's Finery with other sets such as Aughild's Authority and Captain Crimson's Trimmings.
  • Captain Crimson's Trimmings provides us with 20% Cooldown Reduction and grants us damage and toughness based on our CDR and RCR.
  • Jewelry Slots offer several options: Endless Walk and Convention of Elements are commonly used in push meanwhile the combination of Squirt's Necklace and Focus & Restraint can be used at higher paragon or for speed runs for more damage.

Global Stat Priorities

You want to stack damage stats wherever possible, especially Critical Hit Chance and Damage as well as Fire Damage. Area Damage is useless in this build (and actively avoided in groups including in Paragon Points). As this build only deals damage with Firebird's Finery (6) Bonus Ignite procs, Cooldown Reduction is our most important stat by a long shot in order to maximize Captain Crimson's Trimmings (3) Bonus. It is mandatory to get 4 Arcane Power on Critical Hit (APoC) on your Off-Hand in order to keep channeling Disintegrate for Deathwish, especially for Rift Guardian fights. Attack Speed is not useful as it doesn't scale Mirror Images Attack Rate or Ignite procs damage.

For toughness, we prioritize Vitality and Life % as Mirror Images HP pool is based on our HP pool and double dips these stats (See Mechanics). This is why we aim for around 1 million HP in Greater Rift Solo Push. All Resistances helps to scale Mirror Images toughness as well. In groups, zBarb is incredibly helpful for Mirror Images as they benefit from the 60% Dodge Chance from War Cry Veteran's Warning and the Crowd Control Immunity from Ignore Pain if the buffs are applied directly on them. The next priority would be Armor, mainly in Chest and Pants sockets using Flawless Royal Ruby if you feel too squishy. In solo push, Life per Hit on Bracers is very important to get some welcome recovery.

Crowd Control Reduction is an incredibly valuable secondary Affix to roll on both Rings, Amulet and Helmet as we are extremely sensitive to Hard Crowd Control effects because of Deathwish delay and Mirror Images being crowd controlled, so that mitigating these will ease up our gameplay significantly. Make sure to get the Primary Affixes locked in before attempting to get CCR though. Furthermore even though it only grants Crowd Control Immunity to your character, make sure to use Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

Nephalem Rifts
GR Solo Speeds
GR Group Speeds
GR Solo Push
GR Group RGK
Firebird Explosive Blast T16

Concept
Like usual we utilize Boon of the Hoarder with Goldwrap and Avarice Band to become invincible and instantly vacuum the juicy Progression Orbs from Elites.

Since Mirror Images are not fit for T16 Nephalem Rifts, we focus on Explosive Blast Chain Reaction in conjunction with Cooldown Reduction and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac to kill monsters.

Gameplay
Immediately cast Disintegrate to build Combustion stacks. Another good trick is to numlock Explosive Blast. While Teleport is a good mobility skill, its animation time and minimum 0.5 second cooldown are the reasons why we will move faster by running around using the Movement Speed buffs of Boon of the Hoarder, Echoing Fury, Rechel's Ring of Larceny and Illusionist.

Move from Elite to Elite and use Teleport only to keep up the Illusionist Movement Speed buff. Then cast Disintegrate on top of your character to proc an Energy Twister from Etched Sigil that sucks all the monsters in while you Ignite them with Explosive Blast Chain Reaction doing the work.

Setups
If you lack damage early in a season, remove Echoing Fury to equip In-Geom and cube Orb of Infinite Depth. If you don't like the Ranslor's Folly playstyle, you can swap them with Warzechian Armguards and equip Orb of Infinite Depth while keeping both Echoing Fury and In-Geom.

In groups, replace Warzechian Armguards with Nemesis Bracers and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac with Avarice Band. Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac is mainly used to help us kill the first Elite pack to get our In-Geom proc so losing it should not impact you in parties as your teammates can help you kill the first Elite. If you are comfortable enough with your damage, use Sage's Journey instead of Captain Crimson's Trimmings. On the Rift Guardian, you can swap to Cain's Destiny while keeping your Firebird's Finery (6) Bonus if you rotate out Etched Sigil for Firebird's Eye.

Firebird Mirror Images Greater Rift Speeds

Concept
Explosive Blast is still one of our damaging abilities but we add Mirror Image Duplicates to burst down tougher monsters. We replace Boon of the Hoarder with Taeguk for additional 80% additive damage as we channel all the time due to Deathwish.

Gameplay
Your biggest enemy will be Hard Crowd Control Effects since you have no way of mitigating these except for Crowd Control Reduction on your Amulet, Helmet and Rings. Don't forget to refresh your Bastions of Will buffs with Flame Blades before casting Mirror Images and channel. For a step-by-step gameplay description on how you should sequence your skills, check out the "Gameplay" section above.

Setups
Replace Bane of the Powerful with Enforcer if your Mirror Images are dying too much. If your survivability is an issue, swap out Bane of the Powerful for Esoteric Alteration instead. You can also replace Teleport Wormhole with Safe Passage for an additional 25% damage reduction. If you're comfortable with both your damage and toughness, go for Invigorating Gemstone instead of Bane of the Powerful for the Crowd Control Immunity.


Firebird Mirror Images Greater Rift Speeds

Concept
In Group Speeds the setup is exactly the same you use in Solo Speeds with the exception of can replacing Dominance with Elemental Exposure for more damage. The setup revolves around two Mirror Images Wizards supported by a zBarb pulling Elites and grouping monsters together so you can hit many targets at once, with a zDH tremendously buffing your damage.

Gameplay
The gameplay stays the same as in Solo Speeds: rush to Elites and big pulls of monsters, kill them and move onto the next pull quickly. Luckily, you won't have to care about Crowd Control Effects since the zBarb is providing you with Ignore Pain Mob Rule. Don't forget to refresh your Bastions of Will buffs with Flame Blades before casting Mirror Images and channel.

Setups
As there are two Mirror Images Wizards in the party, the Wizard with the least damage should replace Elemental Exposure with Conflagration to provide everyone with a 6% Critical Hit Chance debuff.

Reverse Archon Mirror Image is a possible setup with 67.5% Cooldown Reduction to get a 39 seconds Archon Cooldown and Dominance to sustain shields for Squirt's Necklace but can be wildly inconsistent due to Pet AI in comparaison to a Reverse Archon Flame Blades setup found here.

Firebird Mirror Images Solo Push

Concept
This build is very straightforward in terms of gearing. We use the same setup as in Speeds with the exception we take more toughness with Flawless Royal Ruby and more Vitality. We also take Enforcer to ensure our Mirror Images don't die as they are pretty squishy.

Gameplay
As usual, Hard Crowd Control Effects when you're actively channeling Disintegrate to buff your damage are going to be your worst enemy since you have no way of mitigating these except for Crowd Control Reduction. Cast Frost Nova right before casting Mirror Images to protect them. For a step-by-step gameplay description on how you should sequence your skills, check out the "Gameplay" section above.

On single target Rift Guardians, you will have troubles with Arcane Power, just make sure you can channel during your CoE Fire cycle.

Setups
At lower Paragon, cubing Mantle of Channeling instead of Tasker and Theo is a good option and you can also use Blur. You can replace Enforcer with Zei's Stone of Vengeance for more damage or Invigorating Gemstone for the welcomed Crowd Control Immunity for lower Greater Rift pushing. This build has great single target damage so we usually don't need Bane of the Stricken.

You can use different followers: Enchantress with all skills (Hand of the Prophet) or Templar with halved cooldowns (Hillenbrand's Training Sword) as they can survive due to our Enforcer 90% Pet damage reduction, but you can just play with the immortality token (Smoking Thurible or Enchanting Favor) if you want to. At lower Paragon or if you want to feel safer, the Templar is a great choice due to its Heal while the Enchantress is a more cut-throat full damage option.

Select Build Version

Standard Setup
Firebird Mirror Images RGK

Concept
You're the Rift Guardian Killer. As usual we stack as much Cooldown Reduction as possible for Captain Crimson's Trimmings (3) Bonus, but we add Bane of the Stricken as third gem and fit Elite Damage where we can. We also utilize Power Hungry to take full advantage of Zei's Stone of Vengeance. One Arcane Power on Critical Hit (APoC) roll is critical to fuel Disintegrate channeling costs.

Tasker and Theo is used as it increases the Attack Rate of Mirror Images and Hydra. 7% Increased Attack Speed on Weapon will allow you to reach the 30 FPA Hydra Breakpoint.

Gameplay
Before your Fire Convention of Elements cycle, cast your Mirror Images and Hydra on the Rift Guardian, Teleport 40 yards away for Zei's Stone of Vengeance and Power Hungry then start channeling Disintegrate. Go back on the Rift Guardian afterwards to refresh your Orb of Infinite Depth stacks and stack Bane of the Stricken using Flame Blades but make sure you're 40 yards away and channeling for every Fire Convention of Elements cycle. Unfortunately Rift Guardians that are teleporting around or summon minions are tough to deal with.

Setups
At lower Paragon, Slow Time Stretch Time is generally more beneficial than Hydra as it buffs the Trash Killer with 10% Attack Speed while also applying a 20% Attack Speed Debuff on monsters. Slow Time Stretch Time also benefits you as it buffs the Attack Rate of Mirror Images. If you feel too squishy, swap out Conflagration to take Unwavering Will or Blur instead.

Video Guide

Video Guide

Mechanics

Firebirds Finery

Mirror Images

Deathwish

Wizard Shields

Elemental Exposure

Console Version

Summary

  • Put together the core items and acquire the full Firebird's Finery set.
  • Channel Disintegrate at the start of every Rift for damage reduction and infinite Teleports.
  • Try not to get mad at Mirror Images running away!
  • Hard Crowd Controls Effects are now your worst nightmare!

Good luck!

Credits

Written by Chewingnom.

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