How do you kill Blazing Guardian elites in Act 2?

[Alilei32]

OK for the most part Im killing stuff easily in Act 2. But a lot of times Blizzard thinks its funny to troll me especially once i get inside VoA. Like as a WW/CM wizard how the hell am I supposed to kill those Damn Blazing Guardian elites inside Vault of Assassins? I hit 4 packs of them during my current run and couldnt kill a damn one cause all they do is kite me while laughing. Also not only do they have hilarious affixes like shielding, frozen, jailer, and desecrate, and if they really want to be funny arcane+vortex but they also get to spam their normal abilities and even with 800+ resists I explode in seconds. How am I supposed to kill those? I can laugh at every other affix and mob in Act 2 all day long but I cant even touch these stupid mobs. Are they just unkillable? Or are my stats still gimp?

Stats since my profile wont update

30k Health
27k DPS
30% crit chance
151% crit damage
800-920 all resists
1350 LoH

Also did I ruin my chances of finding gear when I upgraded all my stuff in order to be able to farm Act 2? I went from farming Act 1 with 325 MF and for Act 2 Im down to only 232 with 5 stacks. So far I have killed around 20 elite packs and I have 8 rares, and one is a Daibo so technically I have 7 since it cant possibly roll anything good. Is that because I gimped my MF or is this just a bad run?

[Stommped]

Stay at max range and dodge the fireballs while shooting the mobs.

[Alilei32]

Stay at max range and dodge the fireballs while shooting the mobs.

OK and while at max range how am I supposed to keep them frozen with Nova, while keeping Explosive Blast chain reaction going, and keeping up my tornadoes for damage, LoH, and for critical mass to reset my cooldowns? Max range for me is about 5 feet. They have more range than me which is why I get kited.

[Libretto]

Don't play the lame tornado wizard spec.

But seriously just stop standing in fire.

[Alilei32]

Don't play the lame tornado wizard spec.

But seriously just stop standing in fire.

Thanks for the awesome advice I will just tell them to please stop Vortexing me. Also when all of my screen is fire where would you suggest I stand? Running away accomplished nothing as they just keep shooting more fireballs and dropping more desecrate so using your method I would just run around the whole zone agroing everything because unless I kill them they will just keep chasing me and dropping bad stuff. I asked how to kill them not how to run away and not kill them.

[Libretto]

You are asking how to kill an elite mob which has affixes that are counters to your spec. The solution is to use a different spec or to learn to play. Tornado wizard is known to be a more or less faceroll spec which many people use to farm specifically because it requires little to no strategy or positioning or kiting, so when confronted with mobs which require those things, you naturally explode.

There is this thing called "line of sight" which you can use to cause mobs to be forced to walk right up to you in order to attack you, and which prevents them from vortexing you.

[chadwix]

There is this thing called "line of sight" which you can use to cause mobs to be forced to walk right up to you in order to attack you, and which prevents them from vortexing you.

They broke the monster los in the last ninja nerf. They have the freedom i used to have on my evasive shot-covering fire (thanks for nerfing that without mentioning it blizz).

[OrcsRLame]

Unkillable? No. Annoying? Yes. I don't play a Wizard, so I can really only speak for Barbs. The Blazing Guardians are some of the toughest mobs in Act 2, right next to the big golem guys and the melee serpents. They're not as hard as Act 3 and 4 packs though.

[Firecrest]

Also did I ruin my chances of finding gear when I upgraded all my stuff in order to be able to farm Act 2? I went from farming Act 1 with 325 MF and for Act 2 Im down to only 232 with 5 stacks. So far I have killed around 20 elite packs and I have 8 rares, and one is a Daibo so technically I have 7 since it cant possibly roll anything good. Is that because I gimped my MF or is this just a bad run?

It's physically impossible to have killed 20 packs and have less than 15 rares (since evey pack after the first five is guaranteed to drop at least 1 rare). So when you say that you have killed 20 packs and have only 8 rares, I assume you mean 8 ilevel 63 rares? If that's the case, you're doing very very well.

Additionally, MF has ZERO effect on the ilevel of items you drop. Percentage drops for ilevel are static numbers based on Act. Act I will always drop 2% ilevel 63 and Act III will always drop 8% ilevel 63. MF only effects the quantity of drops and affix counts - it has no effect on ilevel.

[BraveNewWorld]

If you play CM/WW wizard spec, then you have one spell that is "free".

You probably are using Teleport to speed up, then why not use something that would allow you to kill those blazing guardians? Archon / VHydra would work. Could also pick Magic Missile with seeker (does a lot of damage, and if you're CM/WW you probably have near 40% crit (because if you don't you are doing it wrong), so it should crit often).

And lol at you "8 rares in 20 packs". How many lies are you gonna tell us? I thought you were just legitely asking for help, but now that you mentionned that, I think it's more of a L2P issue.

[Riptide]

It's physically impossible to have killed 20 packs and have less than 15 rares (since evey pack after the first five is guaranteed to drop at least 1 rare). So when you say that you have killed 20 packs and have only 8 rares, I assume you mean 8 ilevel 63 rares? If that's the case, you're doing very very well.

Additionally, MF has ZERO effect on the ilevel of items you drop. Percentage drops for ilevel are static numbers based on Act. Act I will always drop 2% ilevel 63 and Act III will always drop 8% ilevel 63. MF only effects the quantity of drops and affix counts - it has no effect on ilevel.

While that last part is true the %'s aren't accurate.

It's 4.8% for act1 9.3% for act 2 and 16.3% for act 3/4.


As for the Blazing guardians, don't stand in fire. Their fire attack seems to hit a lot harder than it's suppose to. People speculate that it's ignoring resists or armor or both. But I'm pretty sure they are considered one of the monster types that "currently hit harder than they should".

[Redblade]

I kill them with Tornadoes only if my Archon is on CD, really not hard, you don't have to use all spells, although if you have low damage gimp Tornado tank spec it might take extra time I suppose.

Edit: Having a wand helps for ranged stuff as well, think a lot of people underestimate it's usefulness.

[Alilei32]

And lol at you "8 rares in 20 packs". How many lies are you gonna tell us? I thought you were just legitely asking for help, but now that you mentionned that, I think it's more of a L2P issue.

Umm how is it a lie. I killed around 20 mobs finished my run early because of a bad storm and I had 8 rares in my bag. Because any piece of armor under level 60 is complete garbage it might as well be a white because it has about the same chances of me picking it up...0 Unless its a ammy/ring if its not 61+ it stays on the ground same with 61 weapons becuase they cant ever ID into anything useful. No use wasting time picking up crap and IDing it when it wont ever sell. People would be surprised how much time they can shave off farming runs by knowing what level a piece of armor/weapon is just by the name so they can leave the trash on the ground rather than wasting bag space and IDing time. Sure 99% of all level 61-63s might be junk but everything under 60 is 100% junk 100% of the time, unless rings/ammys.

[Riptide]

Umm how is it a lie. I killed around 20 mobs finished my run early because of a bad storm and I had 8 rares in my bag. Because any piece of armor under level 60 is complete garbage it might as well be a white because it has about the same chances of me picking it up...0 Unless its a ammy/ring if its not 61+ it stays on the ground same with 61 weapons becuase they cant ever ID into anything useful. No use wasting time picking up crap and IDing it when it wont ever sell. People would be surprised how much time they can shave off farming runs by knowing what level a piece of armor/weapon is just by the name so they can leave the trash on the ground rather than wasting bag space and IDing time. Sure 99% of all level 61-63s might be junk but everything under 60 is 100% junk 100% of the time, unless rings/ammys.

You can hold control over an item to see the stats. So you don't even have to know the name/ilvl relation.

[Alilei32]

MF only effects the quantity of drops and affix counts - it has no effect on ilevel.

So MF does matter then. Or else people wouldnt bother using gear swap macros. Im pretty sure if I ran Act 2 with 300 MF and then again with only 75 from NV stacks I would get noticeably less rares.

[Firecrest]

While that last part is true the %'s aren't accurate.

It's 4.8% for act1 9.3% for act 2 and 16.3% for act 3/4.

Not sure where your numbers are coming from. Mine come from the 1.03 patch notes.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6457499/

So MF does matter then. Or else people wouldnt bother using gear swap macros. Im pretty sure if I ran Act 2 with 300 MF and then again with only 75 from NV stacks I would get noticeably less rares.

What is the point of this post? I feel like you're trying to argue with something I said, but can't figure out what. Your response reads like I said "MF doesn't matter". Which would be stupid.

I said that MF does not affect ilevel. I also pointed out that it does affect drop and affix quantities. I'll also add that NOTHING affects affix quality. Are you trying to argue against any of these facts or what?

---------- Post added 2012-08-07 at 05:05 PM ----------

Umm how is it a lie. I killed around 20 mobs finished my run early because of a bad storm and I had 8 rares in my bag. Because any piece of armor under level 60 is complete garbage it might as well be a white because it has about the same chances of me picking it up...0 Unless its a ammy/ring if its not 61+ it stays on the ground same with 61 weapons becuase they cant ever ID into anything useful. No use wasting time picking up crap and IDing it when it wont ever sell. People would be surprised how much time they can shave off farming runs by knowing what level a piece of armor/weapon is just by the name so they can leave the trash on the ground rather than wasting bag space and IDing time. Sure 99% of all level 61-63s might be junk but everything under 60 is 100% junk 100% of the time, unless rings/ammys.

Every yellow that drops is like a 2k pile of gold. You're telling me that you wouldn't click on a 2k pile of gold if it were right there on the ground next to you? Or are you trying to say that the "suprising" amount of time that I can shave off my runs by not picking up these yellows is worth more than 2k each?

[Riptide]

Not sure where your numbers are coming from. Mine come from the 1.03 patch notes.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6457499/

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6214196/

[Alilei32]

Every yellow that drops is like a 2k pile of gold. You're telling me that you wouldn't click on a 2k pile of gold if it were right there on the ground next to you? Or are you trying to say that the "suprising" amount of time that I can shave off my runs by not picking up these yellows is worth more than 2k each?

The cheapest upgrade I can get in any slot is 4 million gold. I would have to pick up at least 2000, since most sell for under that, of those just to make back what I spent. If you picked up every rare per run and you got 50 it would still take you 40 runs so I hardly see the point. I already get enough bad 61s-63s to vendor to cover repairs why bother with the rest?

[Redblade]

The cheapest upgrade I can get in any slot is 4 million gold. I would have to pick up at least 2000, since most sell for under that, of those just to make back what I spent. If you picked up every rare per run and you got 50 it would still take you 40 runs so I hardly see the point. I already get enough bad 61s-63s to vendor to cover repairs why bother with the rest?

I get about 25-35k per VoA clear from just trash items, that's a minimum of 100k per hour, and that's including the time to id and sell crap.

[Firecrest]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6214196/

My mistake. You are correct.

The cheapest upgrade I can get in any slot is 4 million gold. I would have to pick up at least 2000, since most sell for under that, of those just to make back what I spent. If you picked up every rare per run and you got 50 it would still take you 40 runs so I hardly see the point. I already get enough bad 61s-63s to vendor to cover repairs why bother with the rest?

You're looking at it terribly wrong. Like Alyssa said, it's not just yellows. I pick up blues and even some gems. Picking them up and DEing or selling them can't add more than 10 minutes to a 4 hour farming session. And the benefits of that are measured in the hundreds of thousands of gold.