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Introduction
This is a guide on the Conjurer (Fire + Spirit) build focusing on fireball attack (fire-damage staff with Ternion attack skill). I like fire mage and I like this style because it is more fun, it fits more to the fire mage fantasy (I think) and it’s strong, compared to some other styles such as Eruption or Volcanic Orb oriented.
Pros:
Staff with Ternion attack scales well, better than spells. The reason is that a spell damage only scales with int and +% elemental damage while staff with Ternion attack scales with the staff as well. You can also enchant staff for debuffs etc
Very good AOE while still good at killing bosses
Relatively tanky, compared to other mage builds. No need to kite melees.
Two life-saver skills: Death Ward and Stone Form.
Cons:
Difficult to have a balanced fixed gear set — need to swap gears depending on the zone / boss
Not the fastest boss killer
Playstyle
Damage source:
Use a fire staff with ternion attack, with debuff enchants, as the main damage source
Lich King and Outsider as secondary damage source
Tactics:
Vs boss or a small mobs: stay in the melee range so that all 3 of the ternion fireballs hit the target, and to make use of spirit debuffs
Vs big mobs: attack from max range
Attribute Distribution
Dexterity: just enough for gear requirement. I use around 10 points.
Health: some points to get like 4 – 5k HP on Legendary Act 1 and 5 – 6k HP on Legendary Act 4 and 5. I use around 20 – 30 points.
Intelligence: all of the rest
Skill Distribution
Earth:
Earth Enchantment tree: full. Good offense and defense buffs. The basic skill is high priority.
Volatility: full. Good offense buff. High priority.
Heat Shield: full. Good defense buff.
Stone Form: 1 point (basic skill only). Very good defense cooldown.
Ring of Flame: 1 point (it drains too much energy at high level). Soften Metal: max. Good debuff.
Spirit:
Ternion Attack tree: full. High priority.
Death Ward: full. Very good auto-triggered defense cooldown.
Deathchill Aura tree: full. Very good debuffs.
Summon Outsider: full. Very good boss killer.
Lich King tree: full (except Wraith Shell only needs 1 point). Good support/boss killer.
Spirit Ward tree: full. Good offense/defense buff.
Set-Up and Gears
It’s difficult to have a balanced fixed gear set, due to the nature of caster gears. Thus, it’s recommended to have a sort of default set, and bring a few pieces for each gear slot then swap them depending on the zone / boss. Especially that vs bosses, this character is best to be at melee range, as mentioned.
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My Final Skill Trees
This is my final skill allocation. Ternion skill used as primary spammable attack, Eruption used as primary non-spammable attack. I maxxed out passives and buffs I thought were most important. Earth Enchantment and Volativity for fire damage buffs, Soften Metal for OA debuff, Deathchill Aura for its debuffs and Dark Covenant for its energy and damage buffs. One point into Heat Shield for 15% physical resistance.
Didn't think Spirit Ward and Bane or Circle of Power needed maxxing but they're worth investing at least a point into. Soul Vortex provides some extra sustain, Fire Nova provides some extra CC. Stone Form and Death Ward for emergencies.
I tried out Core Dweller a bit early on but decided Liche King was more useful as support. Invested primarily in it's base skill, not much into synergies. Mostly just there for support as I don't have any real pet boosting items. One point in Outsider for boss fights. With additional points from more levels, I'd probably invest more into either Liche King or Outside I guess.
As for normal gameplay, I start off by turning on my auras, summon Liche and apply Earth Shield whenever it's off cooldown (so I don't worry about it dropping in middle of combat). Drop Eruption whenever it's available, maybe Fire Nova for CC, then spam Ternion. Activate Dark Covenant when available to regenerate energy and boost damage.
Stats
If you have Atlantis, the extra mastery points give you:
Spirit mastery = +12 dex, +24 int, +160 health, +64 energy
Earth mastery = +12 dex, +24 int, +180 health, +48 energy
Health: Put a few extra points here if you want to get a bit more health. Not a huge priority but a few points can help make you a bit tankier.
Energy: Not worth any points. Get more energy or energy cost reduction from gear instead and just use potions when needed.
Strength: N/A
Intellect: Your primary stat which you will dump almost all your points.
Dexterity: Enough to equip your gear, nothing more.
Equipment
This is my final equipment loadout. My DA is pretty bad but Archmage Mantle provides big physical resistance boost which combined with Heat shield helps mitigate melee damage instead. Didn't have much issues tanking damage with help of ADCtH from the Elemental Rage artifact and random green fire staff with 'Devouring' fix for health sustain. Kept an alternative staff with non-fire element available for stuff like Sutr.
Archmage Clasp helped boost my attack speed for Ternion, good CDR and Casting Speed to make it easier and less clunky to throw in some spells in between my Ternion spam. The two Archmage set pieces don't give much resistances in general so I prioritised resistances with my other gear. Crest of Hpynos provides great resists, so does Leggings of the Defiled. I swapped around a couple of rings when needed depending on zone or boss. I have a pair of +int/energy rings and used Apollo's Will and Archimdes' Cogwell to boost resists when needed.
One thing I'm missing is +skill. I've got none at all. I built the character primarily to be more of a tanky mage character and prioritised that instead and equipped the rest of my slots primarily to fill in missing resistances. Extra skill help give your spells a bit better scaling but not having ultimate levels won't cripple any of the skills.
A few gear suggestions:
Stave: Any green fire stave with useful fixes will honestly do. Archmage's, Devouring, Betrayer, etc. Socket with something like Anubis' Wrath for ADCtH, Shen-Nong's Dark Medicine for reduced enemy resistances or Prometheus Flame with attack speed completion bonus for extra fire / burn damage. Ker's Fetish is an excellent fire based MI stave, if you can farm from Act 4 with good fixes it's probably the best available options. Praxidikae is a possible good alternative stave, the vitality damage can be comboed with Spirit's debuffs / buffs but any good cold / lightning stave should do fine as well.
Helm: Crest of Hypnos (tons of resists)
Coronal of the Abyss (huge DA and some resists)
Stheno's Wisdom (easily farmed MI, casting speed + physical resistance, socket with Cunning of Odysseus for Int buff or Crystal of Erebus, preferably with either the +2 skill or the resist completion bonus)
Hesione's Golden Veil (recharge, elemental damage, elemental resistance)
Freyja's Coronet (recharge, DA, elemental damage, elemental resistance)
Orpheus' Garland (projectile avoidance, a bit of resistance)
Chest: Archmage's Mantle (Huge physical resistance, pierce resistance, some health)
Battlemage Robe (lots of DA, dodge attacks, +skill)
Corselet of Freyja (recharge, DA, +1 skill, elemental damage, multiple resistances)
Calypso's Cover (multiple resistances, +2 skill)
Cestus (multiple resistances, CDR, +10% health / Intelligence)
Gloves: Archmage's Clasp (recharge, attack speed, casting speed)
Armlets of Freyja (recharge, DA, elemental damage and lots of resistances)
Boots: Demonskin Walkers (resists, +skill, +elemental damage)
Leggings of the Defiled (resists, DA, damage)
Boots of Freyja (recharge, DA, elemental damage, elemental resistance)
Rings: Occult green ring (+elemental damage and casting speed)
Socrates green ring (+Int / Energy %)
Seal of Hephaestus (+ Fire / Burn damage, level 11 Heat shield)
Anything that covers resistances holes you have
Amulet: Blessing of the Gods (resistances, assorted stats)
Essence of Styx (resistances, health)
Myrmidon's Pendant (good resistances, health, projectile avoidance)
Aphrodite's Favor (decent mix of resistances, +health, +2 skill)
Necklace of Harmonia (ADCtH, decent mix of resistances, +health)
Brisingamen (CDR, physical resistance, some elemental, +2 skill)
Artifact: Elemental Rage (ADCtH, +elemental damage, some elemental resistance)
Talisman of the Jade Emperor (CDR, elemental resistance)
Eye of Ra (+ Fire / Burn damage)
Marduk's Tablet of Destiny (+Int%, shield on low health)
Battlemage set in general is also a possibility. It's an Epic difficulty set and tends to drop a lot so should be relatively easy to find. It's main gimmick is having lots of DA but they are lacking resistances. Using the actual set in Legendary would give you really bad resistance but you might be able to get away with using pieces of the set individually to pad out your DA while your fill in your other resistances with other gear slots.
Leveling
Start with Spirit Mastery, drop one point into Deathchill Aura and fill up the mastery bar until you can unlock Ternion. One point into Ravages of Time, a few points into Ternion then level up mastery (with one point to unlock Dark Covenant) and max Arcane Lore.
Unlock Earth Mastery now, 1 point to unlock Earth Enchantment then mastery points. One point into Heat Shield for the physical resistance buff, one point into Brimstone to buff EE. You can leave Ring of Flame for now, you only want the OA debuff from Soften Metal and should be fine as is until you reach higher later parts of game.
Now you can take several different ways to build the character. You can level up the masteries to get more stats and more abilities. Leveling up Spirit Mastery will give you access Death Ward, Outsider for bosses and Soul Vortex. Leveling up Earth Mastery will give you access Volativity, Eruption and Fire Nova. You can start pumping into points into Liche King or Core Dweller for a support or tank pet. You can max out Ternion to strengthen your base attack. You can put points into your Auras. Long term you'll be filling up these skills anyways but you can fill them in as you wish.