Rating
+2

[2.1.2]Thunder Crash Wizard

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Hybrid
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Skills

  • Electrocute Chain Lightning
  • Meteor Thunder Crash
  • Blizzard Lightning Storm
  • Teleport Wormhole
  • Magic Weapon Conduit
  • Energy Armor Force Armor
  • Paralysis
  • Arcane Dynamo
  • Illusionist
  • Unstable Anomaly

Items

More Details
  • Legendary Gems

    • Zei's Stone of Vengeance
    • Gem of Efficacious Toxin
    • Bane of the Powerful


Skills

Brief note: I get in depth with skills in the other sections below, but note the Magic Weapon rune can be swapped to around to makeup for or boost the build based on the state of your gear, I chose the thematic rune for the posting (obviously ignore the Ignite rune though)


Legendary Gems

Tier List, (explanations below):
Tier 1: Zei's, Powerful, Toxin, Simplicity, Trapped
Tier 2: Enforcer, Pain Enhancer, Gogok
Tier 3: Moratorium, Wreath, Taeguk, Invigorating, Mirin, Boon

Bold means extremely useful for build or build variant, Italic is marginal or niche usefulness for build or build variant, viable alternative if you can't spare or get another highly leveled gem higher on the list.

    1. Powerful can be dropped for Simplicity's Strength if it's more your playstyle or you're running the SoJ/Unity/Depth Diggers setup, in which case I recommend swapping Zei's to Bane of the Trapped and picking up the Unwavering Will passive in place of Illusionist (or Audacity dep on your skill/playstyle/gear/rift level etc)
      • (Simplicity can possibly outshine Powerful regardless of items if you don't have defensive stats where they need to be or if it's level 25 and Powerful isn't...ie grind grifts to level Powerful up using Simplicity, although this is most likely an extremely rare case)
    1. Wreath of Lightning is thematic but without really high level it is far from even being slightly sub-optimal (which is the place it already occupies in the current game/meta playstyle)
    2. Enforcer is a possibility if you have a high leveled gem from another character and a Serpent's Sparker, but you'd need to figure out if you can handle living without Energy Armor (lol) or, more likely, Teleport (you can then drop Illusionist for Unwavering Will etc as stated before) this isn't really recommended though unless it's what you've got (seasonal/etc) and you're farming low GRifts for gear/blood shards.
      • You could also swap out Magic Weapon but depending on your rune usage and how it buffs your gear this may be extremely unwise or optimal for only a very niche gear setup/progression.
    1. Pain Enhancer isn't really worth it, like Gogok the attack speed isn't THAT important to us, Taeguk isn't really worth it either (you would lose large stacks too often...taeguk's most pressing problem)
    2. Gogok, Mirin, Moratorium, Invigorating and Boon are all useless for the build or in general/in GRifts
      • Gogok: We don't need AS really and CDR is 100% useless with the ideal passives/etc
      • Mirin: lol
      • Moratorium: Maybe if you're trying a variation built on standing still etc?
      • Boon: lol
Items

Helm and Source

  1. Ideally have APoC. Or Meteor % damage as the unstated stat priority/reroll
Pants

  1. Get Electrocute % Damage or AR (as needed), whichever you need more (after you can paragon enough vitality to cover the slot you can also consider dropping the vit for %electrocute dmg as you'll be funneling into vit/primary stat anyways and you should be maximizing your non-paragon stats ideally)
Belt

  1. Get Electrocute % Damage over %Life, or reroll Vit if you have enough so you have Int/%Life/Lightning%/Electrocute%Dmg
All Slots

  1. Attack Speed isn't really an issue, so we favor Reduced Resource Cost on WEP/OFFHAND/SHOULDER/GLOVES in place of attack speed in these slots (meaning %life on the shoulder slot)
With the RoRG/Unity Setup and ideal rolls you have:

  1. 75% lightning
  2. 1000 Int from set bonuses
  3. Meteor set bonus revive (to complement passive revive)
With the SoJ/Unity Setup and ideal rolls you have:

  1. 95% lightning
  2. 1000 Int from set bonuses
  3. 100% primary skill damage outside of %Electrocute rolls on any items (you use primary skill a lot to generate AP thru crits/stun/windup dynamo etc. so this is not insignificant)
The SoJ/Unity setup is probably the stronger build for damage (duh), but if you like double death protection and thematic build the RoRG/Unity setup is for you.

Changelog:
12/18/14 - added some filler items for working up to the build, doing some testing with animations and resource funneling/maximum/minimums, hoping to work out some breakpoints (AS and Resource) for the build ahead of season 2 play, gogok might go up a tier depending on how the game treats electrocute jumps for gem procs and conduit procs, pain enhancer probably will move up a tier and then some if the proc chance is good and jumps work, powerful will likely stay high and the SoJ setup will likely be preferred for serious grifting due to the lack of furnace in this build.
12/27/14 - completely slipped my mind I still had Depth Diggers as a viable pant option from the very first excel spreadsheet plan for this build, they haven't worked for Wiz signature skills for months and months. Now you can run Blackthorne's in Neck, Pant, Boots until you get vyr's or if you're missing firebird pieces. OR if you really like the standstill variation of the build with audacity etc. described above. Also toying with S2 hybrid of firebird and slow time sets for skillshot based damage etc. we'll see. don't be hasty

1/16/15 Gems and items/build got wiped from web, re-upping later today ~8pm EST
1/18 oops, finally got to it! things should be restored, items are as close to my well researched ones as I could recall, stat priorities should be good but %dmg to a skill is missing on certain slots, and rings should be obvious

Paragon Priorities

Core

Movement Speed
Maximum Resource
Primary Stat
Vitality

Offense

Critical Hit Damage
Critical Hit Chance
Attack Speed
Cooldown Reduction

Defense

Resist All
Life
Armor
Life Regeneration

Utility

Resource Cost Reduction
Area Damage
Life on Hit
Gold Find
Paragon

    • Movespeed to cap as needed, then max resource for more meteors, then mainstat for damage, vit as needed
    • CHD > CHC (good rolls on gear net you 42-47% anyway *) > AS (better than CDR) > CDR
*and critting 50% of the time means nothing if you don't have good CHD, hence CHD >CHC especially at low paragon/mid-high critObviously reverse these two if you have reasonable CHD from rolls but mediocre CHC and relatively low paragon (meaning you can't at least max 1 category and fill up 0.5 of other)

    • AR > Life > Armor > Regen (simply the most true priority for a non strength class with a non-defensive or stutterstep/standstill/melee build)
    • RCR > Area Dmg >= LoH (if you need LoH prioritize over area dmg) > Gold Find (lmao vault runs)
      • Keep in mind if memory servers the LoH proc for Electrocute is less? So if you're really struggling to get the build off the ground consider upping vitality in the paragon priority, as well as life regen

Build Guide

"The thunder god has a new penchant for meteors."