Just wanted to throw up a thread pointing any one who may be interested to my first blog entry.
Since I was lucky enough to get into the Beta, I have been of course mostly just enjoying myself!! But I also wanted to share some stuff with every one here at Diablofans. Right now, I am going with visual blogs. The goal of them will be to provide some interesting information and observations from my play time, but mostly just to provide some fun / flashy screen shots of stuff!
Hope you enjoy! This first blog focuses on the Wizard, specificaly a mele oriented play through I did.
Great read. My one complaint is that it's melee, not mele.
I tried a melee wizard myself. I think it's not going to be terribly viable until runes can be used to augment more close-range skills, but it was a fun experiment.
Most interesting part of this blog to me was actually that spells other than Spectral Blade are based on your weapon speed.... Not sure what I think about that.
Most interesting part of this blog to me was actually that spells other than Spectral Blade are based on your weapon speed.... Not sure what I think about that.
Keep up the nice work with the blogs!
P.S. Your screenshots are always awesome.
Thanks for the reply Arcane!
I did more testing by the way, I was TOO fast to assume that all skills use weapon speed. That was in fact NOT CORRECT. When I made the blog entry, I did a few casts with different spells and it felt like it did. But after reading your comment I felt I should test it better.
This time I used a big two hander with just 1.00 attacks per second and then a dagger wtih 1.5 attacks per second.
The results are what they SHOULD be and only Spectral Balde is effected by the attack speed of your weapon. Every other Beta spell was un-effected and are likely based off Casting speed.
Sorry for the mix-up and bad information on that! I've ediited the entry.
This was very eye-opening. Previously, I didn't think the Wizard was truly capable of melee in the limited beta version. Very nice combination of skills. I tested it, myself, and this all works very well. Props, props, and props again
Sounds good. I'm working on a few melee builds myself (using the skill calc) but what do you recommend? Wave of Force which simply knocks back enemies when they get too close for comfort or Frost Nova, which freezes them in place which would give you time to attack them unimpeded?
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I agree with feminism. I don't think that it's right that for every dollar a man makes, a women gets 70 cents. Why do I only get 30 cents and some chick gets the rest?
Sounds good. I'm working on a few melee builds myself (using the skill calc) but what do you recommend? Wave of Force which simply knocks back enemies when they get too close for comfort or Frost Nova, which freezes them in place which would give you time to attack them unimpeded?
So I have built probably 10 mele wizard builds using the calculator so far. Really a testament to how much diversity there seems to be in Diablo 3.
TO answer your specific question, I really like Frost Nova quite a bit more than Wave of Force for the Melee build (in theory). I don't like knocking things back, when you want them to be in melee range. The Nova seems to be a great fit for Mele, especially when you rune it for the +45% crit chance when you hit 5 enemies. That combines really well with the rune I took for Spectral Blade: Heals for 100% damage on critical hits. Also, because of this rune choice I think stacking alot of precision will help with survivability.
I really feel that using Spectral Blade as your main way to do damage should be a big part of building a Mele wizard. And so, it needs help, as the 126% weapon damage is pretty lackuster compared to the other mele classes.
So this build focuses on the Conflagration passive skill that adds a 15% increased damage debuff to enemies you burn with fire. Combined with the crimson rune on Magic Weapon should really turn Spectral Blade into an amazing melee ability.
The other big part of the build is of course slow time. Using it while your surrounded should make you more likely to survive, along with the crimson rune making everything take even more damage, again to further help your spectral blade hits.
The energy armor with the big increase to all of your resistances seems likely to be helpfull. Depending on how good your gear is (survivability) you may be able to go a different route with your armor.
Lastly, the Arcane Orb rune that turns it into an orbiting shield that hits things that get too close seems a good fit for a melee build.
Also, would you say that Ice Armor is better or Energy Armor is more effective? (I never figured out whether 'armor' or 'defense' is actually better)
Ice Armor with golden rune has the best defensive effect (Whenever you are struck by a melee attack the bonus armor granted by Ice armor is increased by 85% for 10seconds. This can stack 3x). the rest just add chill or cold damage effects.
Whereas with Energy Armor we got:
Alabaster: increases precision by 40%.
Crimson: increases all resistances by 180%
Gold: gain arcane whenever hit by ranged or melee
Indigo: rather than reducing AP it increases AP
Obsidian: if any attack does more than 26% of your life, the attack is reduced to only do 26% (no attack can ever do more than 26%- which is useful if you really get walloped).
first three spells are the bread and butter of the build. if Indigo rune for SB grants 72% damage for each 'swing' than I will most likely keep it. Obsidian Rune for MW to grant my weapons knockback when they get too close for comfort. Energy Armor with precision+. Tele with WoF on arrival to give my self room if I port into a group of enemies. WoF with reduced AP cost and CD to cast more often if I need more room. and Slow Time to give myself more time to think if I'm crowded by enemies enhanced with alabaster to make myself quicker as well.
Passives are Galvanizing ward to increase shield duration (I get lazy activating shields all the time) plus the life regen is great for a melee build. Blur to decrease melee damage taken and Evocation to reduce CD on tele, WoF and Slow time.
Though I don't really have a chance to test it out so I don't know whether Ap cost, health or CDs will be an issue and if so I'll edit the runes to work better or for alternative passive skills, I was thinking; Unstable Anomaly (Knockback at 20% life- good for oh Sh!t), astral presence if Ap is an issue or Illusionist if I really need tele that often (though I probably won't but just putting it out there.) If I turn out to not have a problem with damage I'll use the Glass Cannon to plow through mobs for a bit though
Edit: also not sure if I want WoF or Frost Nova, might pick Nova with reduced CD or something to slow em down.. just saying.
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I agree with feminism. I don't think that it's right that for every dollar a man makes, a women gets 70 cents. Why do I only get 30 cents and some chick gets the rest?
I love how our two melee wizard builds are so different.
You've got what looks like a good set up there also.
As for Armor vs Defense, I touched on that a bit in my Blog post and I feel that defense is the better choice. Obviously, the developers know this, so you aren't going to find 1 amor equal on gear to 1 defense.
With defense you reduce ALL damage, where as Amor just reduces physical damage. Of course having alot of Amor is a must for the Mele Wizard I assume, but I think I will prefer to stack up that defense so ALL the damage is reduced (nasty ranged targets.. blag!)
There truly are so many options, I can't wait to test them all out come release!
Most interesting part of this blog to me was actually that spells other than Spectral Blade are based on your weapon speed.... Not sure what I think about that.
Keep up the nice work with the blogs!
P.S. Your screenshots are always awesome.
Thanks for the reply Arcane!
I did more testing by the way, I was TOO fast to assume that all skills use weapon speed. That was in fact NOT CORRECT. When I made the blog entry, I did a few casts with different spells and it felt like it did. But after reading your comment I felt I should test it better.
This time I used a big two hander with just 1.00 attacks per second and then a dagger wtih 1.5 attacks per second.
The results are what they SHOULD be and only Spectral Balde is effected by the attack speed of your weapon. Every other Beta spell was un-effected and are likely based off Casting speed.
Sorry for the mix-up and bad information on that! I've ediited the entry.
I love how our two melee wizard builds are so different.
You've got what looks like a good set up there also.
As for Armor vs Defense, I touched on that a bit in my Blog post and I feel that defense is the better choice. Obviously, the developers know this, so you aren't going to find 1 amor equal on gear to 1 defense.
With defense you reduce ALL damage, where as Amor just reduces physical damage. Of course having alot of Amor is a must for the Mele Wizard I assume, but I think I will prefer to stack up that defense so ALL the damage is reduced (nasty ranged targets.. blag!)
There truly are so many options, I can't wait to test them all out come release!
Glad that you think so
Always fascinated with the 'arcane warrior' or spellsword class. Still have yet to find the game that truly gives me that class, something where melee is the primary attack but has enhancements say, like hp/str/def/speed/etc but also some spells that he can either lob at enemies like a fireball or lightning arc, either from a distance or for AoE including spells like magic weapon (or any 'elemental weapon' buff) and elemental armors. Still waiting for a game to release something like that.
The best I've found to this is actually in a ForgottenRealms book. The main character of the 'Haunted Lands trilogy' (Unclean, Undead, Unholy) by Richard Lee Byers is a Bard, normally I'm not a fan of bards but this one captured exactly what I want in a class. He was primarily a swordsman but could sing enhancements that buffed up his strength and agility, yell shouts that could shatter bone or knockback (granted I would want mine to have elemental spells :P) but even do things like sing charms to enhance his disposition, or manipulate his target, sing a charm that allows him to understand other languages and speak it as well. Sing a silencing spell and just countless others. Byers really took advantage of the class, possibly even more so than a bard should go but also a really good read, I recommend it, for the story but also to see how awesomely he captured the bard class. Also like a battlemage, something of a hybrid as well, I like to be prepared for anything
Edit: oh check the wiki page, also he can sing a song that will teleport him, a Bard that can teleport with song? Tell that is not epic.
But can I some critique on it? I don't have the better and don't know any of the mechanics. like I mentioned I might modify runes to get more Ap, reduced CD or life-leech based on how much I need them. but being that you can test it out give me your opinion on everything, I guess I can test the above quandaries when I get the game myself but just curious on how my spells work out. Thanks in advanced
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I agree with feminism. I don't think that it's right that for every dollar a man makes, a women gets 70 cents. Why do I only get 30 cents and some chick gets the rest?
I agree with feminism. I don't think that it's right that for every dollar a man makes, a women gets 70 cents. Why do I only get 30 cents and some chick gets the rest?
Man, im impressed by your blog, so decided to combine your ideas with my idea of cancel-SB animation into Arcane orb and max crit sinergy. Check it out.
Main ideas:
1. Max crit chance gives heal from SB and free shock-dmg from storm armor (which is super cool, couse melee wiz won't have much mana)
2. SB cancel animation technique allows us to spam Arcane Orb. Main factor is the weapon speed, so, by variying weapons we can balance arcane power spent. Also, if needed, we can change the crimson rune into obsidian one (like u did), to be more AOE-powerful.
3. Teleport with obsidian rune gives us a 10 second 25% all dmg reduction buff. I think its imba for melee wiz. Also teleport allows us to escape dangerous situations, I like it more than yours Slow Time. Actually, slow time has big CD and will not affect our effectiveness much, couse main dmg will be gained from arcane orb, which is long-distance spell. All i want to say, is that teleport is much better than slow time for melee wiz
Btw, the guy who discovered animation cancelling is goin to play wizard, and he said on official forums, that he's going to abuse cancel SB animation into arcane orb. Ive combined his idea, with yours, and added sinergies from max-crit from frost nova and SB-heal.
If nothing chages, im going to use this build ingame. I like it so much soz for bad english
I wrote a guide about this build in my native language forums, so if you like it, i can ofc translate some more information i think about melee build.
p.s. first reply on this forum Long days and pleasent nights everyone
I was really inspired by what you're doing here. I, like many out there, was instantly curious about the idea of doing a melee battle mage type character. That you can even do different versions of that in this game is pretty cool.
I do not think a melee or short range casting wizard is gimped. In fact I think a Melee wizard will be very strong and can compete with a Barb or Monk in that roll.
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On Strike and supporting Fallout 4 Mod Makers
Some fallout 4 mod makers have had their mods stolen and uploaded and downloaded on Bethesda's site for the Xbox One.
Just wanted to throw up a thread pointing any one who may be interested to my first blog entry.
Since I was lucky enough to get into the Beta, I have been of course mostly just enjoying myself!! But I also wanted to share some stuff with every one here at Diablofans. Right now, I am going with visual blogs. The goal of them will be to provide some interesting information and observations from my play time, but mostly just to provide some fun / flashy screen shots of stuff!
Hope you enjoy! This first blog focuses on the Wizard, specificaly a mele oriented play through I did.
Obviously, to see the Blog just click into my profile and and click on the Blog tab. Or, here is a link: http://www.diablofans.com/blog/220/entry-529-mele-wizard-visual-diary/
I tried a melee wizard myself. I think it's not going to be terribly viable until runes can be used to augment more close-range skills, but it was a fun experiment.
Ohh and I fixed all the "Melee"s
Keep up the nice work with the blogs!
P.S. Your screenshots are always awesome.
Thanks for the reply Arcane!
I did more testing by the way, I was TOO fast to assume that all skills use weapon speed. That was in fact NOT CORRECT. When I made the blog entry, I did a few casts with different spells and it felt like it did. But after reading your comment I felt I should test it better.
This time I used a big two hander with just 1.00 attacks per second and then a dagger wtih 1.5 attacks per second.
The results are what they SHOULD be and only Spectral Balde is effected by the attack speed of your weapon. Every other Beta spell was un-effected and are likely based off Casting speed.
Sorry for the mix-up and bad information on that! I've ediited the entry.
Also, I added the next entry which coveres the rest of the spells for the Wizard: http://www.diablofans.com/blog/220/entry-537-the-wizard-skills-beta-visual-entry/
So I have built probably 10 mele wizard builds using the calculator so far. Really a testament to how much diversity there seems to be in Diablo 3.
This one is probably my favorite to this point:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#XWZQSe!aeV!aZaZZc
TO answer your specific question, I really like Frost Nova quite a bit more than Wave of Force for the Melee build (in theory). I don't like knocking things back, when you want them to be in melee range. The Nova seems to be a great fit for Mele, especially when you rune it for the +45% crit chance when you hit 5 enemies. That combines really well with the rune I took for Spectral Blade: Heals for 100% damage on critical hits. Also, because of this rune choice I think stacking alot of precision will help with survivability.
I really feel that using Spectral Blade as your main way to do damage should be a big part of building a Mele wizard. And so, it needs help, as the 126% weapon damage is pretty lackuster compared to the other mele classes.
So this build focuses on the Conflagration passive skill that adds a 15% increased damage debuff to enemies you burn with fire. Combined with the crimson rune on Magic Weapon should really turn Spectral Blade into an amazing melee ability.
The other big part of the build is of course slow time. Using it while your surrounded should make you more likely to survive, along with the crimson rune making everything take even more damage, again to further help your spectral blade hits.
The energy armor with the big increase to all of your resistances seems likely to be helpfull. Depending on how good your gear is (survivability) you may be able to go a different route with your armor.
Lastly, the Arcane Orb rune that turns it into an orbiting shield that hits things that get too close seems a good fit for a melee build.
Ice Armor with golden rune has the best defensive effect (Whenever you are struck by a melee attack the bonus armor granted by Ice armor is increased by 85% for 10seconds. This can stack 3x). the rest just add chill or cold damage effects.
Whereas with Energy Armor we got:
Alabaster: increases precision by 40%.
Crimson: increases all resistances by 180%
Gold: gain arcane whenever hit by ranged or melee
Indigo: rather than reducing AP it increases AP
Obsidian: if any attack does more than 26% of your life, the attack is reduced to only do 26% (no attack can ever do more than 26%- which is useful if you really get walloped).
So far my build is, any comments..
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#XWQicS!eVf!YcaZba
first three spells are the bread and butter of the build. if Indigo rune for SB grants 72% damage for each 'swing' than I will most likely keep it. Obsidian Rune for MW to grant my weapons knockback when they get too close for comfort. Energy Armor with precision+. Tele with WoF on arrival to give my self room if I port into a group of enemies. WoF with reduced AP cost and CD to cast more often if I need more room. and Slow Time to give myself more time to think if I'm crowded by enemies enhanced with alabaster to make myself quicker as well.
Passives are Galvanizing ward to increase shield duration (I get lazy activating shields all the time) plus the life regen is great for a melee build. Blur to decrease melee damage taken and Evocation to reduce CD on tele, WoF and Slow time.
Though I don't really have a chance to test it out so I don't know whether Ap cost, health or CDs will be an issue and if so I'll edit the runes to work better or for alternative passive skills, I was thinking; Unstable Anomaly (Knockback at 20% life- good for oh Sh!t), astral presence if Ap is an issue or Illusionist if I really need tele that often (though I probably won't but just putting it out there.) If I turn out to not have a problem with damage I'll use the Glass Cannon to plow through mobs for a bit though
Edit: also not sure if I want WoF or Frost Nova, might pick Nova with reduced CD or something to slow em down.. just saying.
I love how our two melee wizard builds are so different.
You've got what looks like a good set up there also.
As for Armor vs Defense, I touched on that a bit in my Blog post and I feel that defense is the better choice. Obviously, the developers know this, so you aren't going to find 1 amor equal on gear to 1 defense.
With defense you reduce ALL damage, where as Amor just reduces physical damage. Of course having alot of Amor is a must for the Mele Wizard I assume, but I think I will prefer to stack up that defense so ALL the damage is reduced (nasty ranged targets.. blag!)
There truly are so many options, I can't wait to test them all out come release!
Awesome, thanks for clarifying this!
Glad that you think so
Always fascinated with the 'arcane warrior' or spellsword class. Still have yet to find the game that truly gives me that class, something where melee is the primary attack but has enhancements say, like hp/str/def/speed/etc but also some spells that he can either lob at enemies like a fireball or lightning arc, either from a distance or for AoE including spells like magic weapon (or any 'elemental weapon' buff) and elemental armors. Still waiting for a game to release something like that.
The best I've found to this is actually in a ForgottenRealms book. The main character of the 'Haunted Lands trilogy' (Unclean, Undead, Unholy) by Richard Lee Byers is a Bard, normally I'm not a fan of bards but this one captured exactly what I want in a class. He was primarily a swordsman but could sing enhancements that buffed up his strength and agility, yell shouts that could shatter bone or knockback (granted I would want mine to have elemental spells :P) but even do things like sing charms to enhance his disposition, or manipulate his target, sing a charm that allows him to understand other languages and speak it as well. Sing a silencing spell and just countless others. Byers really took advantage of the class, possibly even more so than a bard should go but also a really good read, I recommend it, for the story but also to see how awesomely he captured the bard class. Also like a battlemage, something of a hybrid as well, I like to be prepared for anything
Edit: oh check the wiki page, also he can sing a song that will teleport him, a Bard that can teleport with song? Tell that is not epic.
But can I some critique on it? I don't have the better and don't know any of the mechanics. like I mentioned I might modify runes to get more Ap, reduced CD or life-leech based on how much I need them. but being that you can test it out give me your opinion on everything, I guess I can test the above quandaries when I get the game myself but just curious on how my spells work out. Thanks in advanced
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Richard_Lee_Byers
Books:
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/The_Haunted_Lands
The Bard (Bareris)
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Bareris_Anskuld
AO-Melee-Crit Build
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WXegZi!Vcd!caZaac
Main ideas:
1. Max crit chance gives heal from SB and free shock-dmg from storm armor (which is super cool, couse melee wiz won't have much mana)
2. SB cancel animation technique allows us to spam Arcane Orb. Main factor is the weapon speed, so, by variying weapons we can balance arcane power spent. Also, if needed, we can change the crimson rune into obsidian one (like u did), to be more AOE-powerful.
3. Teleport with obsidian rune gives us a 10 second 25% all dmg reduction buff. I think its imba for melee wiz. Also teleport allows us to escape dangerous situations, I like it more than yours Slow Time. Actually, slow time has big CD and will not affect our effectiveness much, couse main dmg will be gained from arcane orb, which is long-distance spell. All i want to say, is that teleport is much better than slow time for melee wiz
Btw, the guy who discovered animation cancelling is goin to play wizard, and he said on official forums, that he's going to abuse cancel SB animation into arcane orb. Ive combined his idea, with yours, and added sinergies from max-crit from frost nova and SB-heal.
If nothing chages, im going to use this build ingame. I like it so much soz for bad english
I wrote a guide about this build in my native language forums, so if you like it, i can ofc translate some more information i think about melee build.
p.s. first reply on this forum Long days and pleasent nights everyone
Keep up the good work!
Director, Writer, Producer @
http://outofthevoidp...ns.blogspot.com
A QUADRILLION MAGIC FIND is worthless if you can't kill shit!