So I've been toying with the idea of a "melee wizard"... but I don't necessarily want to melee. I just want to be able to survive a bunch of mobs while I blast them away. I hate the idea of being a "glass cannon", but love the idea of being a "battle mage" - if you will.
Have a look at this, and see if you have any comments on what I should/could change to be more of a "battle mage"; at least according to what we know about runes/spells so far!
I like the idea of being able to have teleport but I'm not sure what I'd drop for it... I think the damage would still be great with familiar, for disintegrate and explosive blast, and even spectral blade as well. Diamond as your safe guard, along with Anomaly and Energy Armor with huge resistances, and you've got yourself a pretty tanky wizard imo.
General idea would be Spectral blade or Disintegrate spam, explosive blast in big groups when able. Although again, I'd really like to have teleport. I had toyed with the idea of Arcane Orb: Arcane Orbit (have them float around you and explode on impact), but I'm not sure if losing base 40% damage would be worth another damage spell in my arsenal.
2). At max AP you'll be able to cast Explosive Blast once. (100 base - 20 from Energy Armor = 80 AP) You'll also have a total of 3 seconds of Disintegrate. (Assuming gear can't increase the size of your pool, which so far I'm fairly sure there's been no proof of).
A potential solution to these issues would be to drop Galvanizing Ward for Prodigy. You'll get 5 AP per cast of Spectral Blade that way. Alternatively you could change the Alabaster rune in Spectral Blade to Golden and get even better AP regen. In any case, as I've stated in another thread Galvanizing Ward (in my opinion) is terrible. See the Arc Wizard thread if you care to read why.
Also, If you're planning a melee Wiz and not taking Magic Weapon, you're gimping yourself. Use a Golden rune in Spectral Blade for AP Regen, then take Magic Weapon and take Blood Magic which will heal 45% of all melee dmg you do as life.
Diamond skin will probably be very important for survival, so I would recommend you get Enduring Skin which will increase the duration to 21 secs. So you'll almost always have it up which would really be impt for Boss/rares/unique fights.
You would have to choose to drop either Disintegrate or Explosive Blast in order to get Magic Weapon. But then again, since you're building a Tanky build, you don't really need 2 spells aside from your main attack.
Also, If you're planning a melee Wiz and not taking Magic Weapon, you're gimping yourself. Use a Golden rune in Spectral Blade for AP Regen, then take Magic Weapon and take Blood Magic which will heal 45% of all melee dmg you do as life.
Diamond skin will probably be very important for survival, so I would recommend you get Enduring Skin which will increase the duration to 21 secs. So you'll almost always have it up which would really be impt for Boss/rares/unique fights.
You would have to choose to drop either Disintegrate or Explosive Blast in order to get Magic Weapon. But then again, since you're building a Tanky build, you don't really need 2 spells aside from your main attack.
I don't think Spectral Weapon counts as melee so you are forced to choose between melee and SW. I'd go with obsidian in Magic Weapon to increase the base weapon damage from 120% to 134% so that SW gets bumped and can be used exclusively.
Here's my current build. Basically, I try to maximize damage from Spectral Blade and then cover with defense on other skills. I'm not worried about secondary skills because this is a melee build and I don't plan on fighting from a distance. Teleport is nice because of the damage reduction. Arcane Orbit > Explosive Blast IMO. More damage and it's not on a timer. The blast radius is negligible IMO because you are planning on being in the crowd. Plus, it pairs nicely with Teleport, popping on arrival. Slow Time acts as defense and damage enhancer. Frost Nova could replace Slow Time.
For bosses, I'll probably go max protect and distance/running against bosses like this.
I don't think Spectral Weapon counts as melee so you are forced to choose between melee and SW. I'd go with obsidian in Magic Weapon to increase the base weapon damage from 120% to 134% so that SW gets bumped and can be used exclusively.
Here's my current build. Basically, I try to maximize damage from Spectral Blade and then cover with defense on other skills. I'm not worried about secondary skills because this is a melee build and I don't plan on fighting from a distance. Teleport is nice because of the damage reduction. Arcane Orbit > Explosive Blast IMO. More damage and it's not on a timer. The blast radius is negligible IMO because you are planning on being in the crowd. Plus, it pairs nicely with Teleport, popping on arrival. Slow Time acts as defense and damage enhancer. Frost Nova could replace Slow Time.
It does. Magic Weapon adds 20% Physical Dmg to your melee weapon, no different that having +Fire or lighting dmg to a weapon, and Spectral Weapon does 35% of your weapon damage but 3 times - so 105% (unless blocked/dodged).
The Teleport dmg reduction is only for 16 secs after you arrive at a destination. So guessing you'd teleport in then out, cast a few Arcane Orbs then back in again? Or do a Slow time and slash away.
Interesting build but far to fragile for my tastes. I've seen too many high HP mobs, hard hitting mobs in the beta and know there will be obvious problem areas.
I don't think Spectral Weapon counts as melee so you are forced to choose between melee and SW. I'd go with obsidian in Magic Weapon to increase the base weapon damage from 120% to 134% so that SW gets bumped and can be used exclusively.
Here's my current build. Basically, I try to maximize damage from Spectral Blade and then cover with defense on other skills. I'm not worried about secondary skills because this is a melee build and I don't plan on fighting from a distance. Teleport is nice because of the damage reduction. Arcane Orbit > Explosive Blast IMO. More damage and it's not on a timer. The blast radius is negligible IMO because you are planning on being in the crowd. Plus, it pairs nicely with Teleport, popping on arrival. Slow Time acts as defense and damage enhancer. Frost Nova could replace Slow Time.
It does. Magic Weapon adds 20% Physical Dmg to your melee weapon, no different that having +Fire or lighting dmg to a weapon, and Spectral Weapon does 35% of your weapon damage but 3 times - so 105% (unless blocked/dodged).
The Teleport dmg reduction is only for 16 secs after you arrive at a destination. So guessing you'd teleport in then out, cast a few Arcane Orbs then back in again? Or do a Slow time and slash away.
Interesting build but far to fragile for my tastes. I've seen too many high HP mobs, hard hitting mobs in the beta and know there will be obvious problem areas.
I knew all of the skill information, but I was questioning whether a spell still counts as melee. Essentially, just because it says 35% weapon damage, doesn't mean it necessarily counts as a melee attack still. If it has been confirmed to work that way, then my runes will probably change a bit.
Really, the only thing that I could do to enhance defense more is drop glass cannon and add diamond skin, which I'll be doing for bosses. I think that the 10 seconds in the slow time bubble will be more than enough time to kill the mob or at least thin it out to the point that it's manageable without the bubble. If you kill enough of the mob early on, health doesn't become a problem because of the health orbs.
I knew all of the skill information, but I was questioning whether a spell still counts as melee. Essentially, just because it says 35% weapon damage, doesn't mean it necessarily counts as a melee attack still. If it has been confirmed to work that way, then my runes will probably change a bit.
Really, the only thing that I could do to enhance defense more is drop glass cannon and add diamond skin, which I'll be doing for bosses. I think that the 10 seconds in the slow time bubble will be more than enough time to kill the mob or at least thin it out to the point that it's manageable without the bubble. If you kill enough of the mob early on, health doesn't become a problem because of the health orbs.
While this might still change before launch, but both skills have been tested and confirmed in Beta. They compliment each other.
And its a good point as well that with D3, we can swap out skills before doing a boss, its not a hard firm we have no choice as in D2. But you'll still have to contend with Elites and Unique mobs. If you don't like Diamond Skin, having Frost Nova to freeze mobs giving you time to either retreat or finish them off, or Wave of Force. But I think Glass cannon & Blur are fine together.
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Have a look at this, and see if you have any comments on what I should/could change to be more of a "battle mage"; at least according to what we know about runes/spells so far!
Energy Armor: Prismatic (180% resistances)
Spectral Blade: Alabastor (crits heal 100% damage)
Diamond Skin: Obsidian (Absorb 6919 damage) OR Crimson (reflects 160% damage back)
Disintegrate: Crimson (intensify damage over time)
Explosive Blast: Indigo (increase radius / damage)
Familiar: Crimson (40% damage bonus)
Passives: Galvanizing Ward (increase armors + hp regen), blur (-20% melee damage taken), Unstable Anomaly (20% life = shockwave knockback)
I like the idea of being able to have teleport but I'm not sure what I'd drop for it... I think the damage would still be great with familiar, for disintegrate and explosive blast, and even spectral blade as well. Diamond as your safe guard, along with Anomaly and Energy Armor with huge resistances, and you've got yourself a pretty tanky wizard imo.
Link is here: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#QXVUTO!WeU!ZacZYZ
Thoughts?
General idea would be Spectral blade or Disintegrate spam, explosive blast in big groups when able. Although again, I'd really like to have teleport. I had toyed with the idea of Arcane Orb: Arcane Orbit (have them float around you and explode on impact), but I'm not sure if losing base 40% damage would be worth another damage spell in my arsenal.
1). No AP generation
2). At max AP you'll be able to cast Explosive Blast once. (100 base - 20 from Energy Armor = 80 AP) You'll also have a total of 3 seconds of Disintegrate. (Assuming gear can't increase the size of your pool, which so far I'm fairly sure there's been no proof of).
A potential solution to these issues would be to drop Galvanizing Ward for Prodigy. You'll get 5 AP per cast of Spectral Blade that way. Alternatively you could change the Alabaster rune in Spectral Blade to Golden and get even better AP regen. In any case, as I've stated in another thread Galvanizing Ward (in my opinion) is terrible. See the Arc Wizard thread if you care to read why.
Also, If you're planning a melee Wiz and not taking Magic Weapon, you're gimping yourself. Use a Golden rune in Spectral Blade for AP Regen, then take Magic Weapon and take Blood Magic which will heal 45% of all melee dmg you do as life.
Diamond skin will probably be very important for survival, so I would recommend you get Enduring Skin which will increase the duration to 21 secs. So you'll almost always have it up which would really be impt for Boss/rares/unique fights.
You would have to choose to drop either Disintegrate or Explosive Blast in order to get Magic Weapon. But then again, since you're building a Tanky build, you don't really need 2 spells aside from your main attack.
I don't think Spectral Weapon counts as melee so you are forced to choose between melee and SW. I'd go with obsidian in Magic Weapon to increase the base weapon damage from 120% to 134% so that SW gets bumped and can be used exclusively.
I also like Crimson in SW for extra DOT on mobs.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#QXWSei!Yeb!ZZcZcc
Here's my current build. Basically, I try to maximize damage from Spectral Blade and then cover with defense on other skills. I'm not worried about secondary skills because this is a melee build and I don't plan on fighting from a distance. Teleport is nice because of the damage reduction. Arcane Orbit > Explosive Blast IMO. More damage and it's not on a timer. The blast radius is negligible IMO because you are planning on being in the crowd. Plus, it pairs nicely with Teleport, popping on arrival. Slow Time acts as defense and damage enhancer. Frost Nova could replace Slow Time.
For bosses, I'll probably go max protect and distance/running against bosses like this.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#QXWPVk!YWf!cYcZYc
It does. Magic Weapon adds 20% Physical Dmg to your melee weapon, no different that having +Fire or lighting dmg to a weapon, and Spectral Weapon does 35% of your weapon damage but 3 times - so 105% (unless blocked/dodged).
The Teleport dmg reduction is only for 16 secs after you arrive at a destination. So guessing you'd teleport in then out, cast a few Arcane Orbs then back in again? Or do a Slow time and slash away.
Interesting build but far to fragile for my tastes. I've seen too many high HP mobs, hard hitting mobs in the beta and know there will be obvious problem areas.
I knew all of the skill information, but I was questioning whether a spell still counts as melee. Essentially, just because it says 35% weapon damage, doesn't mean it necessarily counts as a melee attack still. If it has been confirmed to work that way, then my runes will probably change a bit.
Really, the only thing that I could do to enhance defense more is drop glass cannon and add diamond skin, which I'll be doing for bosses. I think that the 10 seconds in the slow time bubble will be more than enough time to kill the mob or at least thin it out to the point that it's manageable without the bubble. If you kill enough of the mob early on, health doesn't become a problem because of the health orbs.
And its a good point as well that with D3, we can swap out skills before doing a boss, its not a hard firm we have no choice as in D2. But you'll still have to contend with Elites and Unique mobs. If you don't like Diamond Skin, having Frost Nova to freeze mobs giving you time to either retreat or finish them off, or Wave of Force. But I think Glass cannon & Blur are fine together.