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Lalalaland34490 Posts
I'm currently level 19, doing normal mode. I'm not sure if that's skewing my results, but right now I'm raping everything midway through act 2.
My bars are Diamond skin (obviously), frost nova (cold snap), wave of force (impactful wave), storm armor, shock pulse (explosive bolts), ray of frost (snow blast). My itemisation priority was more or less health > regen = int = damage. I use the Templar fellow and spec'd him up for healing. All I do is run in, use my two aoe's and then spam shockwave, and everything dies/explodes on each other. I only Ray of Frost for single target dps on bosses etc. Diamond skin is self-explanatory.
With this I clear waves out in 2-3 spells and never go below 75% hp. The sheer amount of damage from everything popping on each other feels retardedly overpowered.
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Australia7069 Posts
On May 18 2012 00:39 NB wrote:Show nested quote +On May 17 2012 22:44 alQahira wrote:
Could any of these high level wizards answer the questions from the first comment? Reposted:
"Ooh, I have questions for a high level wizard. When you get to level 45, can you let me know if the decoys created by the fracture rune on teleport get the explosive effects from mirror image's mocking demise?
Also at 45, you get temporal flux. Any chance you could check to see what happens if you have arcane damage from a weapon, whether that makes the slow proc? In case that isn't clear, temporal flux makes things slow, but only when you do arcane damage. However, lots of weapons have +arcane damage. So the question is, if you do damage with something like spectral blades (which is normally physical) but have a +arcane damage weapon, will that trigger the slow effect from temporal flux?"
I'm just a level 16 wizard at the moment, but very curious about some later builds. first one: no i think, the illusions are separate by different colors 2nd: i dont have arcane weapon but yes. the problem is 1 slot of passive is HUGE for just a slow which you can achieve by normal spells. Arcane weapons is not even that common... On another topic: i would like to compare my Meteor vs the infinite Arcane Orb everyone is using atm: Meteor + Star Pact: Cost: 35 Casting: Positional AoE, has a long 'projectile travel time' Effect: 200% WD + 60% WD(over 6 seconds as a burning debuff on unit) (multiple burning dont stack) AoE: full circle(100%) Arcane Orb + Obliteration: Cost: 35 Casting: Projectile launching spell, medium projectile speed. AoE: full circle around the projectile impact(which mean that its always less than full circle) Both Spells has 0 cd and are spamable. As you can see, Meteor deals way more damage in a much more effective way. Your projectile cannot be stopped(wall sometime stop it however) unlike Arcane orb which is often interrupted by different layers of mobs. The down side of meteor however is the projectile travel time: it takes almost 2~3 seconds from when you cast the spell to when the dmg happen. This could cause a lot of trouble if you are not equip with some good disable skills to hold enemy in place. Conclusion: Currently i think meteor is just WAY better than Arcane Orb as long as you know how to aim it right (mostly just aim to your feet bc they will come to you LOL). Would love to see people prove me wrong!
arcane orb hits more reiably, and when spamming with obliteration will do about the same damage. eg: you're fighting teleport mobs, you're trying to hit meteor and they teleport on top of you. with arcane orb they run into your projectile and you keep doing consistent dps. with meteor it's 2 seconds before you're hitting thema gain. it's also much easier to aim arcane orb on the run. in a group with someone else to tank / keep mobs stable meteor is great, but as someone who plays alot solo or with bads arcane orb is easier. besides disintegrate is better than them both 
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Netherlands45349 Posts
Lets be honest even though meteor isn't that great Meteor Shower is the shit.
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Australia7069 Posts
i tried that rune for a bit...90% of the hits hit nothing O.o how were you playing it?
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it hit pretty decent at melee range btw
hmm i just test out the teleport illusion + duplicate exploding thing as request: your teleport decoys wont explode but if you tele port during the illusion duration, your illusion immediately explode.
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http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#UlXQSj!aXT!bYaZZa
i've tried lots of different builds but this is the one i like the most atm(lvl 59 act3 hell). kite with blizzard and spam electrocute with lots of buffs. teleport and diamond skin for basic survival and champions/bosses because one just isn't enough with some f'd up combinations. quite low single target dps but very good survivability and good aoe dmg.
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is it better to use a 2h staff, or wand/oh combo?
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1 hand is more effective as latter on you get more extra magic attribute which gona be really helpful (magicfind, gold+ etc...). However if you find yourself a 2 hand that deals a shit load more dmg than what u currently have, go for it.
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Was struggling to do damage in nightmare for awhile, and being getting OHKO'd every 5 minutes is not fun. After reading this thread, I've made some adjustments. Hopefully this helps someone out - I still die really fast, but I feel like I can actually blow mobs up instead of being a freeze/stun slave.
Skills:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#ikYgSX!YXe!ZZaZZZ
I never found any signature skills effective: I'd rather have 2 high damage spells and wait 2 seconds and have a garbage spell to use on downtime since I've been melting mobs fast. Having Diamond Armor Prism + Astral Presence also help with mana problems. Meteor does a fucking shit load of damage and I can't believe I wasn't using it before (thanks NB!).
More importantly, I switched to a high damage weapon makes a HUGE difference. My damage doubled (from ~400 to ~800) when I replaced my shitty bonus exp sword/shield with a 90 dps 2h hammer.
I'm also thinking about Ray of Frost w/ Cold Blood with Meteor/Astral Orb - unload all your mana on mobs and pick off the rest with essentially free ray of frost. Does anyone have experience with that?
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Surprised there isn't more love for Shock Pulse 
Just hit act III normal and my default build so far has been:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#bcYdXQ!bY!aaaaaa
Against standard groups, run in while putting up diamond skin, nova on the ranged mobs, wait a second for meleers to come in (just let things stack up a bit more than you could if you were tanking without nova), then Shock Pulse. Shock Pulse chains like mad against little guys. Sometimes I'll toss an arcane orb in first to soften them up so the Pulse rune triggers. Wave of Force is a good reset button or lazy-clear if stuff dies easily. Teleport is usually an escape, but can be used to get in good position against elusive mobs or guys that summon things in your way.
Against solos, the build works out pretty well because you still have disables and escapes. Shock Pulse does decent damage when you're up in melee range too. Instead of stacking diamond skin and frost nova, I'll use them separately to negate/tank damage, slip in some Pulses, Wave or Tele to keep scary stuff away, and Orb as AP dump for more damage.
For sick AP dump damage I like Diamond Skin (Prism) + Ray of Frost (Snow Blast), Astral Presence & Glass Cannon passive.
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Has anyone found a good solo build for hell/inferno (currently act 2 hell lvl 55)?
Atm I'm rockin http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#biXmSj!abc!bbabaa
Seems kinda cookie cutter (volatility is insane and orb is best signature aoe) but the problem is since sparkflint+magic weapon are kinda needed for the extra dps the only tactic i got for rare packs is just run in with diamond skin and press archon when i've killed the lil dudes and hope to kill them before they kill me.
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Level 57 atm, I use this: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#bZXlSY!ZaY!bZaZZc
Blizzard for the ranged slow, use primary skill as main AOE dps, ray of frost for rares, blues, and bosses
One thing I'd like to mention is that magic weapon gives you a SHIT TON of damage. Turn it on and awtch your damage skill sky rocket. I use this build for survivability/kiting/single target dps which is what I feel you NEED in hell. Clearing AOE mobs is super easy as is on any difficulty, but hit a rare/blue mob and you're fucking done. I think the build could use some experimenting, particularly frost shield looks promising, but I sooo don't want to get rid of magic weapon. Also, this build has really low arcane energy consumption.
Personally I think archon sucks because you have to stand and channel your shit, leaving you really vulnerable. Even if you have a lot of defense you can still die with no escape in that mode.
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@ high level wizs how good is flash of insight?
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I've read through most of this thread (I'm at work, so...), and it's very interesting to see all the different builds. So people swear certain skills are useless (Hydra, Frost Armor, Shock Bolts), while others seem to be using those very same skills as integral parts of their builds.
I've been using a fire-oriented build to good effect in Nightmare.
Passives: Conflagration, Glass Cannon, Arcane Presence (the +20 AP/+ 2 regen one)
Signature: Fire Bolts. These are great imo, medium range but you can stutterstep effectively with them and avoid getting hit. They deal a ton of AoE damage.
Secondary: Disintegrate /w Chaos Nexus
1: Diamond Skin /w Prism
2: Teleport /w Wormhole
3:Meteor /w Star Pact
4: Archon
Basically, I use Meteor and Fire Bolts to apply the Conflagrate debuff, and then mop everything up real quick with Disintegrate. Great mobility/defense with DS and Tele, and Archon is just super fun, but I'll probably replace it with Energy Armor later. Anyways, it's a lot of fun and I haven't died in Nightmare yet!
What do you guys think of the signature skills?
I want to use Electrocute, but the damage is so terrible that I always end up going back to Fire Bolts. I guess if you only use it to regenerate AP, it's decent though.
Magic Missile is boring as hell.
I love shock bolts.
But I think my go-to at higher levels will be spectral blade + the range rune, it really seems like the best of the signature skills.
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On May 18 2012 14:14 Baobab wrote:
I've read through most of this thread (I'm at work, so...), and it's very interesting to see all the different builds. So people swear certain skills are useless (Hydra, Frost Armor, Shock Bolts), while others seem to be using those very same skills as integral parts of their builds.
I've been using a fire-oriented build to good effect in Nightmare.
Passives: Conflagration, Glass Cannon, Arcane Presence (the +20 AP/+ 2 regen one)
Signature: Fire Bolts. These are great imo, medium range but you can stutterstep effectively with them and avoid getting hit. They deal a ton of AoE damage.
Secondary: Disintegrate /w Chaos Nexus
1: Diamond Skin /w Prism
2: Teleport /w Wormhole
3:Meteor /w Star Pact
4: Archon
Basically, I use Meteor and Fire Bolts to apply the Conflagrate debuff, and then mop everything up real quick with Disintegrate. Great mobility/defense with DS and Tele, and Archon is just super fun, but I'll probably replace it with Energy Armor later. Anyways, it's a lot of fun and I haven't died in Nightmare yet!
What do you guys think of the signature skills?
I want to use Electrocute, but the damage is so terrible that I always end up going back to Fire Bolts. I guess if you only use it to regenerate AP, it's decent though.
Magic Missile is boring as hell.
I love shock bolts.
But I think my go-to at higher levels will be spectral blade + the range rune, it really seems like the best of the signature skills.
Electrocute is more to proc Prodigy, imho. 3-4 casts after draining your AP with a beam spell = full AP again.
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im currently considering to get rid of signature skill, get an extra passive and nuke everything onto 1 skill with good arcane regen.... The problem is in hell, signature deals almost to nothing. Instead of using them, its better to run around re positioning and/or casting a disable spells. Will test this out soon.
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On May 18 2012 08:15 whtan wrote:Anybody know what skills/passive this mage is running? I think his name is diplol He barely loses hp and is continuously attacking against belial http://www.twitch.tv/nl_kripp
Im guessing he runs energy armor with force dampen. He can only take a max of 35% health damage, with a monk inthe group your health is almost instantly replenished back to full (if you run around with 10k hp like i do). However I do know he's not playing with low hp pool, might just have really high health and isn't soaking high damage hits.
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My new favorite build for clearing non-bosses (And some easy bosses with low damage output) is absolutely hilarious and is completely centered around my favorite skill: Archon
LMB: Electrocute - Electric Blast
- For when you're not in Archon form. Does a good job at killing groups of enemies or single enemies, especially because it is a signature.
RMB: Archon - Teleport
-Archon is freaking awesome. With the right-click of archon you can destroy anything in seconds.
1: Teleport - Wormhole
-The best survivability skill in the game. You can get the hell outta any situation. Also good for travelling.
2: Arcane Weapon - Force Weapon
-Damage. Who doesn't like damage?
3: Familiar - Sparkflint
-More damage. Yay.
4: Arcane Armor - Pinpoint Barrier
-Survive more and more crits.
Passive 1: Glass Cannon
-Damage! Kill Everything!
Passive 2: Evocation
-Lower the cooldown on Archon
Passive 3: Critical Mass
-Lower the cooldown on Archon
Use this in act 3/4 where there are lots of mobs. Enjoy being constantly in godmode constantly due to Evocation+Critical Mass(which benefits from Pinpoint Barrier). You have crazy damage from Archon+Glass Cannon+Force Weapon+Sparkflint. You survive well with Teleport and Arcane Armor. Teleport on the archon also lets you go from pack to pack quickly (especially with Mass/Evoc reducing Teleport cooldown) I literally was in archon form constantly for the last half of act 3. In the rare situations where Archon is not active, Electric Blast is alright for clearing mobs out and works fine for killing bosses.
It's a strange build, but it's damn fun. And before you ask - yes, buffs from Wizard form do carry over to Archon form.
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EPT
