Manastorm Prestige Build Guide
There are a variety of different builds you can use for quick prestiges using manastorms and in this guide I'm going to cover a few and roughly what level ranges I'd recommend using these builds on. This is not meant to be all inclusive as there are more viable builds and the overall viability of a build is subject to how fast your ideal prestige is and how much patience you have.
I'm going to be starting the list based on beginner friendly based on card requirements and the manastorm levels they are optimal for.
This one should probably not come as a surprise to anyone, this is a fairly quick and efficient build for prestiging at very low card requirement to make function.
Starting Cards
Here you could swap out holy light for arcane intellect or blessing of might, but personally with the low self healing of this build, having a heal to top after packs can be nice to have. Judgement isn't absolutely necessary either, but will typically have synergies with things you roll along the way.
Carded Abilities
Seal of Command and Divine Storm and the only two core abilities here. Fel infused weapon is incredibly nice to have if you do have the card, it is in no way required for you to play this build. Flametongue weapon is a nice budget replacement for Fel Infused. Exorcist's Slash is nice for its potential to reset the cooldown on Divine Storm which will be the the majority of your damage output. If you don't have either of these cards, you really can consider anything else, some sort of movement ability, blinks, sprint, heroic leap or anything similar will do you just fine. If you do also take Flametongue as mentioned above, you can slot in Lava Sweep here if you have it for some extra nice AoE burst. Again the only core abilities are Seal of Command and Divine storm, that is why the build is so nice for new players.
Carded Talents
The big obvious core talent here is one with the light, it transitions your Crusader Strike and Divine Storm to holy damage and buffs their scaling. It's what makes this build work. Luckily, this card is readily available in the open world. I'll provide a link here that will show the location of One With The Light in addition to being a great resource as to whats available in the open world. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1ipkD3DNlcPuKO6zfozVrr8ELCsDHmY-SmeQSYvhWF9w/htmlview
For this particular set up, I've chosen talents that are most likely for new players to have, there may be faster and stronger talents, but I've chosen non-legendary non-capstone requiring talents here. Stormbringer is available from a boss in gnomer at a 100% drop rate and specifics are included in provided spreadsheet. All other talents increase the damage of seal of command and divine storm.
Mystic Enchants
Seals of the Pure 3/3
Sanctity of Battle 3/3
Vanquishing Storm 3/3
Wizard's Divine Storm/Crusader Strike
Playstyle
The playstyle of this build is fairly simple, charge in and press divine storm and hope you don't die from affixes. The self healing portion of this build comes from the heal on Divine Storm (8% of the damage it deals). So that's something to consider while you play. Aside from that, its fairly simple. Divine storm is always your highest priority, lava sweep second if you've taken it and Exorcist's Slash and Crusader Strike until Divine Storm is back up.
Downside
The major drawback of this build in my mind that prevents this build from really being one of the best prestige builds is that it doesn't fully come online until you get seal of command at 20, and your self healing ability while Divine Storm is on CD is minimal. If you get to a manastorm level where you aren't one shotting packs with divine storm it can be a bit tricky and at worst too slow.
Starting Abilites
You will really want to take Wrath here and replace it at 10, cat form with swipe is absurdly slow pre-10. You can use feral charge, I just prefer regular charge for the addition of charge of charge.
The main core spell here is Fel Infused Weapon, I can't in good faith recommend this build if you don't have it, it can certainly "work" but you'd be missing out a lot on its potential and you're better off playing a OWTL variant. You can put it Cat-a-clysm here for a bit more single target power if you are doing semi decently high manastorms.
A few swaps that can be made here is Unbounded Death healer in place of Death Dealer and Mental Quickness 5/5 in place of Vitality. I prefer vitality here as I do not think the value from MQ is really present while prestige spamming, if you had any desire to play this build at 60 you would most likely take MQ here. If you were going to drop vitality or didn't have it, you can use the Mystic Enchant Vitality and Primal Precision in it's place for energy regen.
Mystic Enchants
Vitality 3/3
Primal Precision 3/3
Wizard/Fighter's Swipe 3/3
Playstyle
Swipe
Downsides
Fairly limited self healing, unless you take deathhealer. Strongly relies on killing mobs before they hit you.
Starting Abilities
Can change regular charge out for Feral charge. Can also card corruption if you're looking to either do a run with more self healing, this is core functionality of the build but strictly speaking for prestige runs I do not think it is needed.
Carded Abilities
Sunder Soul is a great spammable single target damaging ability here. Shadow waste bolt is a cleaving shadowbolt with a dot that will be a decent portion of your single target damage.
Carded Talents
Unlike Proc Car, I do think the duration of single target fights will allow Mental Quickness to have high value. Maledictive Assault/Shadow Strikes combo is what allows you to cast Shadow Waste Bolt instantly while in bear form. Soul Leech will trigger self healing from those shadowbolts. Unbounded Deathhealer will trigger off of swipe and other abilities for a reasonable amount of healing.
Mystic Enchants
Stab In The Dark 3/3
Wizard's Devastate 3/3
Improved Shadowbolt 3/3
Darkness 1/1
Shadow Igniter 1/1
Etiolation 1/1
Playstle
This build does not play as fast as the other two builds here, it is a fairly traditional playstyle in that a core rotation is present. Gaining instant Shadow Bolt procs through use of other abilities and self healing through it. It's a slower and steadier build, but once you get to the very high level of manastorms it is is required.
Downsides
The build has no inherent downsides other than it being somewhat slow compared to other builds, its not something that you'd want to take into lower manastorms. So identifying when this is the right build for you and the level your at can be difficult.
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As I stated earlier, this is far from the only viable builds to prestige manastorms with. I just find these to be the most reliable and most easily acquired. Any of these builds can have variation in talents and abilities taken and you do not have to have every single card taken to play any of these builds. Some talents or abilities are core and I've done my best to mention them specifically. At some point in time I will likely add more builds to this list, if you have any you'd like to see on here feel free to reach out.
I'm going to be starting the list based on beginner friendly based on card requirements and the manastorm levels they are optimal for.
ONE WITH THE LIGHT
This one should probably not come as a surprise to anyone, this is a fairly quick and efficient build for prestiging at very low card requirement to make function.
Starting Cards
Here you could swap out holy light for arcane intellect or blessing of might, but personally with the low self healing of this build, having a heal to top after packs can be nice to have. Judgement isn't absolutely necessary either, but will typically have synergies with things you roll along the way.
Carded Abilities
Seal of Command and Divine Storm and the only two core abilities here. Fel infused weapon is incredibly nice to have if you do have the card, it is in no way required for you to play this build. Flametongue weapon is a nice budget replacement for Fel Infused. Exorcist's Slash is nice for its potential to reset the cooldown on Divine Storm which will be the the majority of your damage output. If you don't have either of these cards, you really can consider anything else, some sort of movement ability, blinks, sprint, heroic leap or anything similar will do you just fine. If you do also take Flametongue as mentioned above, you can slot in Lava Sweep here if you have it for some extra nice AoE burst. Again the only core abilities are Seal of Command and Divine storm, that is why the build is so nice for new players.
Carded Talents
The big obvious core talent here is one with the light, it transitions your Crusader Strike and Divine Storm to holy damage and buffs their scaling. It's what makes this build work. Luckily, this card is readily available in the open world. I'll provide a link here that will show the location of One With The Light in addition to being a great resource as to whats available in the open world. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1ipkD3DNlcPuKO6zfozVrr8ELCsDHmY-SmeQSYvhWF9w/htmlview
For this particular set up, I've chosen talents that are most likely for new players to have, there may be faster and stronger talents, but I've chosen non-legendary non-capstone requiring talents here. Stormbringer is available from a boss in gnomer at a 100% drop rate and specifics are included in provided spreadsheet. All other talents increase the damage of seal of command and divine storm.
Mystic Enchants
Seals of the Pure 3/3
Sanctity of Battle 3/3
Vanquishing Storm 3/3
Wizard's Divine Storm/Crusader Strike
Playstyle
The playstyle of this build is fairly simple, charge in and press divine storm and hope you don't die from affixes. The self healing portion of this build comes from the heal on Divine Storm (8% of the damage it deals). So that's something to consider while you play. Aside from that, its fairly simple. Divine storm is always your highest priority, lava sweep second if you've taken it and Exorcist's Slash and Crusader Strike until Divine Storm is back up.
Downside
The major drawback of this build in my mind that prevents this build from really being one of the best prestige builds is that it doesn't fully come online until you get seal of command at 20, and your self healing ability while Divine Storm is on CD is minimal. If you get to a manastorm level where you aren't one shotting packs with divine storm it can be a bit tricky and at worst too slow.
PROC CAT
This is another simple prestige build that is very fast, comes online at 10, but has a much steeper card requirement to make function well. Proc bear is equally as viable but I think its a bit slower due to rage generation compared to up front energy. This build can be played by replacing cat form/swipe with fan of knives, but due to energy costs I believe this pulls firmly ahead.Starting Abilites
You will really want to take Wrath here and replace it at 10, cat form with swipe is absurdly slow pre-10. You can use feral charge, I just prefer regular charge for the addition of charge of charge.
The main core spell here is Fel Infused Weapon, I can't in good faith recommend this build if you don't have it, it can certainly "work" but you'd be missing out a lot on its potential and you're better off playing a OWTL variant. You can put it Cat-a-clysm here for a bit more single target power if you are doing semi decently high manastorms.
A few swaps that can be made here is Unbounded Death healer in place of Death Dealer and Mental Quickness 5/5 in place of Vitality. I prefer vitality here as I do not think the value from MQ is really present while prestige spamming, if you had any desire to play this build at 60 you would most likely take MQ here. If you were going to drop vitality or didn't have it, you can use the Mystic Enchant Vitality and Primal Precision in it's place for energy regen.
Mystic Enchants
Vitality 3/3
Primal Precision 3/3
Wizard/Fighter's Swipe 3/3
Playstyle
Swipe
Downsides
Fairly limited self healing, unless you take deathhealer. Strongly relies on killing mobs before they hit you.
SHADOW BEAR
This build is incredibly strong for pushing high manastorms, incredibly strong self healing, high damage potential. Some of the top manastorm pushers are playing this build at 60. I wouldn't suggest this as the go to prestige build unless you are doing 1k+ manastorms as its tankiness and self-healing will likely be wasted. However if you are looking to spam prestiges into a viable post 60 build, this is absolutely a consideration.Starting Abilities
Can change regular charge out for Feral charge. Can also card corruption if you're looking to either do a run with more self healing, this is core functionality of the build but strictly speaking for prestige runs I do not think it is needed.
Carded Abilities
Sunder Soul is a great spammable single target damaging ability here. Shadow waste bolt is a cleaving shadowbolt with a dot that will be a decent portion of your single target damage.
Carded Talents
Unlike Proc Car, I do think the duration of single target fights will allow Mental Quickness to have high value. Maledictive Assault/Shadow Strikes combo is what allows you to cast Shadow Waste Bolt instantly while in bear form. Soul Leech will trigger self healing from those shadowbolts. Unbounded Deathhealer will trigger off of swipe and other abilities for a reasonable amount of healing.
Mystic Enchants
Stab In The Dark 3/3
Wizard's Devastate 3/3
Improved Shadowbolt 3/3
Darkness 1/1
Shadow Igniter 1/1
Etiolation 1/1
Playstle
This build does not play as fast as the other two builds here, it is a fairly traditional playstyle in that a core rotation is present. Gaining instant Shadow Bolt procs through use of other abilities and self healing through it. It's a slower and steadier build, but once you get to the very high level of manastorms it is is required.
Downsides
The build has no inherent downsides other than it being somewhat slow compared to other builds, its not something that you'd want to take into lower manastorms. So identifying when this is the right build for you and the level your at can be difficult.
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As I stated earlier, this is far from the only viable builds to prestige manastorms with. I just find these to be the most reliable and most easily acquired. Any of these builds can have variation in talents and abilities taken and you do not have to have every single card taken to play any of these builds. Some talents or abilities are core and I've done my best to mention them specifically. At some point in time I will likely add more builds to this list, if you have any you'd like to see on here feel free to reach out.
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