Menoitios' PVE Human Torch (Glass Cannon) dps human torch leveling pve pvp
Guide by Menoitios Last update at May 11th 2014, 21:36

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Going Supernova 1
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Human Torch for 2.45



With recent updates in the game I found myself wanting a more damage oriented build for Johnny and this is what I came up with.

My other build is still viable and can be found here.



Also, this build is going to be VERY squishy and may be frustrating while you try to adapt to it.




Power Points / Skill Tree



,
, and
are our main DPS tools for single target (mainly bosses).


,
, and
are our main DPS tools for AOE (mainly trash clearing).


should be used if you ever get low on spirit and want to get it back up to a comfortable level.

should be used to avoid anything that may one shot us or to get better positioning on a boss or group of bosses.

is Johnny's signature skill and has some decent burst damage on activation; however, due to the long cooldown it has I cannot justify more than one point in it (like every other signature move in the game).

is maxed out due to the high amount of dodge it provides and the movement speed on it doesn't hurt any either.

only one point is needed for the utility flight will provide us.

this build is very spirit hungry; however, one of our artifact choices (covered later in the guide) wil provide us with plenty of regeneration so you shouldn't need more points in this.

only one point is needed for the utility this skill provides.

this skill only warrants the default point it has in it. The damage increase on it per rank is abysmal.

provides us with some health and spirit regeneration on demand (and a fairly short cooldown that we can manipulate).








The Rotation




Single Target:

I start off with
followed by
, and from there I nuke the target with
until our AOEs need to be refreshed and just start over.

If you find yourself running low on spirit (or out of it) then substitute in
for
until your spirit is back to a level you are comfortable with.



AOE:

I start off with a couple casts of
spread out and proceed to 'stutter cast'
until everything is dead or I need to re-apply the 'burning condition' to the enemies.

Note: 'Stutter cast' refers to just tapping the keybind for
and moving between casts instead of fully charging it.



Also, use
as needed to maintain your health and/or spirit.





The Gear




Medallion



[item]39[/item], [item]33[/item], [item]34[/item], [item]41[/item], [item]172[/item], [item]121[/item], [item]202[/item] are all very good choices.


I personally use [item]121[/item] because it now provides 400+ Energy Damage Rating and 400+ DoT Damage Rating, which for this build both stats hit nearly every skill making it the biggest damage increase available.



Relic



I personally use a stack of 200 [item]188[/item] to buff my spirit pool a bit to allow longer periods of nuking; however, if you are finding you can manage your spirit fine without it then I would suggest either [item]214[/item] or [item]213[/item] for damage boosting alternatives or [item]187[/item] to provide more survivability which you may desire with this build.




Artifacts



[item]80[/item] is a must have since our target is ALWAYS going to be on fire and will provide the single biggest DPS increase.

Black Tom's Shillelagh (marvelbase does not have the item in it's database yet) is a another must have because ALL of our attacks are energy attacks and this provides the second biggest damage boost to them. (It provides +Energy Damage Rating, 3-5% chance proc for damage on hit, and +Energy Defense.)

[item]239[/item] is another must have now, since the item review, because it will provide us another 500+ Damage Rating to all of our attacks (a little lower than [item]198[/item]) and gives us a little bit of insurance with it's revive mechanic.

[item]101[/item] helps this build sustain it's spirit a little longer while we nuke our target(s) and provides a nice boost to health.






[item]234[/item] is a good alternative. It provides up to 325 damage rating and +1 to all skills.

[item]198[/item] is another good alternative since all of our attacks (in this build) are tagged with the 'Area' tag and will all benefit from the +damage rating it provides.

[item]95[/item] is a good choice as well. It provides +crit rating, +radius, and reduces the spirit cost of everything in this build and is fairly easy to come by.

[item]223[/item] is an all around good artifact but may be a little tricky to come by.





Legendary Item



There are a few Legendary Items that are viable for the Human Torch to include Gungnir, Casket of Ancient Winters, Cosmic Control Rod, and Golden Bow of Apollo.

With the recent item review (which hit Legendary items as well) Casket of Ancient Winters will give us the biggest damage increase over any other Legendary and is the clear choice for this build.

Cosmic Control Rod is the best alternative. It provides nearly the same damage increase as Gungnir while also providing a slight survivability increase via the 'on defeat' affixes on Rank 2 and Rank 4.




Blessings



I personally opt to use 4x Fandrals Blessing for 12% dodge rating (unaffected by diminishing returns) and 400 crit rating even for a 'glass cannon' build. Unless you are stacking critical and brutal rating this will still be the best one to take.



Uru-Forged War Gear / Runeword / Enchantments



For this build I opt to useUru-Forged War Belt over Uru-Forged Battle Breastplate for the extra 200 Energy Damage Rating it provides.


For the Runeword there are a several viable ones to choose from.

For this build I personally use Fire Barrage becaues it will provide us another 400 Damage Rating and a proc for more damage in the form of another DoT.


A couple alternatives I also like for this build are Bowazon and Heartbreaker.


When it comes to enchants I use Cattle Enchant of Health (+200 Health per enchant) for extra survivability on slots 2, 3, and 4 and I personally opt for the Fire Enchant of Energy (+50 Energy Damage per enchant) on slots 1 and 5.




Costume Core



With the recent changes to costume cores (mainly the life leach and 25% medkit cores along with the addition of a few new affixes) there are several viable choices; however, I try to keep one affix on my costume cores for survivability because a dead dps does no dps.

Due to that the core(s) I would recommend is either 25% Medkit and +1 Energy or 400 Life on Hit and +1 Energy (also, +1 Durability if you can manage to get a 'grandfathered' Life Leach core).




Slot 1



A Cosmic with +7 (or more) to
and +300 or more Energy Damage Rating is going to be best in slot.

However, finding that "perfect" cosmic item is going to be harder than finding a unique drop. the Destroyer Energy Rifle is going to be the best unique to fill this slot currently; however, Human Torch's hero specific unique, Gloves of the Light Brigade, is a very good alternative and may be easier to obtain, especially if you find yourself relying on a basic attack fairly often.


Slot 2



The 'Any Hero' unique Mechanical Arms of Doc Octopus is a must have when going 'glass cannon'. It provides upwards of 1,000 Damage Rating and 1,000 Critical Rating at level 60 (depending on your affix rolls).

However, with how difficult it is to farm for a specific 'Any Hero' unique Human Torch's Slot 2 unique, Stark's Unstable Catalyst, is a nice substitute and will also boost your survivability a bit.


Slot 3



Human Torch's Slot 3 unique, Future Foundation Belt, or the 'Any Hero' unique, God of Thunder's Vigorous Belt, are both really good in this slot. I am not sure which is better than the other at this moment, I still need to test out the latter of the two (I am waiting for a good roll on it first).


Slot 4



The Original Human Torch's Boots are best in slot, even for a 'glass cannon' build, and you should never pass up on using your best pair of these.

The % damage they provide at max distance is a sizable damage increase and DoT mechanics (which includes
) are ALWAYS considered at max range. Also, the +ranks to the 'Burning Bravo' tree is too good to pass up since most of our damage tools are in that skill tree.


Slot 5



Human Torch's hero specific unique, Stellar Fire, is best in slot and you should not pass up using your best one of these.




Synergies




    1. Human Torch: +2% Area Power Damage (Level 25) / +2% Area Power Damage (Level 50)
    2. Iron Man: +2% Ranged Damage (Level 25) / +2% Energy Damage (Level 50)
    3. Ms. Marvel: +2% Energy Damage (Level 25) / +2% Energy Damage (Level 50)
    4. Scarlet Witch: +2% DoT Power Damage (Level 25) / +2% DoT Power Damage (Level 50)
    5. Hawkeye: +2% Critical Damage (Level 25) / +2% Critical Damage (Level 50)
    6. Cable: +1% Critical Chance (Level 25) / +1% Critical Chance (Level 50)
    7. Storm: +15 Spirit (Level 25) / +15 Spirit (Level 50)
    8. Spider-Man: +2% Dodge Chance (Level 25) / +2% Dodge Chance (Level 50)
    9. Squirrel Girl: +2% Damage vs. Bosses (Level 25) / +2% Damage vs. Bosses (Level 50)
    10. Invisible Woman: +2% Energy Damage (Level 25) / +2 Projectile Deflection Chance (Level 50)


These synergies will optimize our boss kill times while also providing some bonus dodge and spirit to help us sustain and minimize our down time.

Some of you may question the Invisible Woman synergy; however, it coupled with the Mechanical Arms of Doc Octopus in Slot 2 will net us upwards of 15% Projectile Deflection which is dodge but for ranged attacks. If you are not using or do not own them yet then I would use Thing's synergy for solo play (a total of 4% Damage versus targets attacking you) or Jean Grey's synergy (her Level 50 synergy provides 3% Energy Damage which is the highest damage increase left that we have not taken so far).






Thank you for reading my guide, I hope you enjoy the build as much as I do.
Comment and vote to help improve the build.







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