Hi all I have a somewhat of an interesting request for seasoned wizzards.
So lets start:
My girlfriend started playing D3 a while back and now she wants to play Wizzard in inferno MP1-2, BUT she doesn't want to play Archon and CM. Since I have not played wizzard at all I'm not able to create a build that would suite her needs, and thus I'm asking for help here.
Request is to :
1)create a build that will be easy to play since she is not a great gamer, and not so skilled with keyboard. Now you know why CM is not an option.
2) char would have a lot of HP, and would not die often! This is more important to her than creating a efficient build, so something that would be able to kill relatively fast but have the ability to heal and easy to play.
20 Milion Budget for upgrades is available.
I feel like the char has enough DPS, the problem for me is what skill choices do we have in order to be able to face tank the Elites. Some LS is there we can buy a some more LOH on amy and maybe on pants(blackthorne), but real question is what spells to take.
i'm in a similar situation with my daughter and the conclusion we can to was similar to what you have here where most of the spells just get activated once in a while (magic weapon, familiar, prismatic armor) and there really are only a couple skills to pay attention to. My daughter currently plays with Blizzard, Disintegrate with Chaos Nexus, and whatever signature spell she is currently interested in when her magic is depleted. She doesn't like running out of magic or dying, so I had to just buy her lots of +arcane power and regen type items plus lots of vit/armor/RA.
I give her candy when she finds a legendary/set item... not sure if that makes me a bad father or not
you know honestly I think she enjoys barbarian more tho. Whirlwind is really really fun and doesn't have that many abilities that need to be activated. equipment is pretty cheap too
i'm in a similar situation with my daughter and the conclusion we can to was similar to what you have here where most of the spells just get activated once in a while (magic weapon, familiar, prismatic armor) and there really are only a couple skills to pay attention to. My daughter currently plays with Blizzard, Disintegrate with Chaos Nexus, and whatever signature spell she is currently interested in when her magic is depleted. She doesn't like running out of magic or dying, so I had to just buy her lots of +arcane power and regen type items plus lots of vit/armor/RA.
I give her candy when she finds a legendary/set item... not sure if that makes me a bad father or not
This seems to me like exactly the same situation.
Only a few spells she casts all the time, everything else has to be some kind of long lasting spell that she casts every minute or so.
you know honestly I think she enjoys barbarian more tho. Whirlwind is really really fun and doesn't have that many abilities that need to be activated. equipment is pretty cheap too
She did! But then she leveled up a Wizzard, and now it is her favorite char.
She has plenty dps, health and resists for mp 1-2 with any common spec. I'd ask her what spells she liked and post them here, that way we can put some of the ones she likes together for a decent spec. This way she'll continue liking playing wizard and not lose interest by being forced into playing a cookie cutter which are often boring and very unpersonal.
This is actually a very good idea. I shall do that. She does not have a problem ATM with any elites but reflect, whenever they come it is like panic attack all over the place. So I would need to put together something that she can facetank RD with. This is actually the source of the most frustrations.
I've actually tried playing with her char against RD and had no problem, but kiting for her is not an option as she likes to stand and fight.
Hi, im in a similar place with my wiz. Im no theory crafter but i can tell u my experience.
First i want to state that CM Wicked wind build is the easyest to play. But archon its a lot more fun. So im gonna tell my experience with archon.
The build:
Using archon is a great choice, u melt everything before anything touches u. Its complicated at first because she will have to learn to move fast and leave gold piles behind (i manage to make archon work even picking up all rares). Archon isnt good for "free roam", u need to have a farming route that can keep archon up.
Archon lives with Life steal an movement speed. Life steal u have, but u lack move speed.
When u loose archon and its on cooldown you will have to kite. (unless u have GREAT gear).
SKILLS:
1- Archon.
Rune: Teleport (if you are having trouble keeping archon up) or slow time (if u are having trouble surviving)
2 - Armor skill
Energy is good when u are out of archon, but inst necessary when u are on archon. Energy(force) is ok for now, but she may want to try storm armor(scramble) when she gets the hand on kiting.
3- Magic weapon - blood magic (ok)
Now all the changes:
Kiting phase. This is the combination of skills i find usefull for kiting:
4- Shock pulse (piercing orb)
Great skill for kiting. Decent damage and hits almos every mob in front of you.
5- Hydra (arcane)
I find hydra better than blizzard. You can move around while hydra takes care of everything. Arcane is grat because with temporal flux passive you slow the mobs.
6- Defensive skill of choice.
Here u can try teleport(fracture) or anything else u think can be usefull. Personally i use slow time with any rune.
PASSIVES
1- Critical mass or evocation.
CM its Great for reducing archon cooldown, despite u dont have any heavy CM proc, any crit adds up. (question: CM reduces archon's teleport cooldown?)
2- Temporal flux. Slows mobs with hydra. Archon does arcane dmg too, so its a win-win situation
3- Glass cannon if you have trouble killing stuff or blur if you have trouble staying alive.
ITEMS
You have great gear. Weapon its ideal.
Helmet its GREAT but i think u will be better off with a (no more than 2M) mempo of twilight
You will need an extra item with movement speed. The obvious choice its lacunis (with some pickup radius, so you dont have 0)
Everything else seems about right to give the build a try, i dont think you will need to buy anything else for now.
Hope it helps.
EDIT: CMWW its easyest beacuse, despite she has to use every skill you can just press all the buttons at once and the build will likely still work quite well. The boring part its that it takes long time to kill stuff.
Hi, im in a similar place with my wiz. Im no theory crafter but i can tell u my experience.
First i want to state that CM Wicked wind build is the easyest to play. But archon its a lot more fun. So im gonna tell my experience with archon.
The build:
Using archon is a great choice, u melt everything before anything touches u. Its complicated at first because she will have to learn to move fast and leave gold piles behind (i manage to make archon work even picking up all rares). Archon isnt good for "free roam", u need to have a farming route that can keep archon up.
Archon lives with Life steal an movement speed. Life steal u have, but u lack move speed.
When u loose archon and its on cooldown you will have to kite. (unless u have GREAT gear).
SKILLS:
1- Archon.
Rune: Teleport (if you are having trouble keeping archon up) or slow time (if u are having trouble surviving)
2 - Armor skill
Energy is good when u are out of archon, but inst necessary when u are on archon. Energy(force) is ok for now, but she may want to try storm armor(scramble) when she gets the hand on kiting.
3- Magic weapon - blood magic (ok)
Now all the changes:
Kiting phase. This is the combination of skills i find usefull for kiting:
4- Shock pulse (piercing orb)
Great skill for kiting. Decent damage and hits almos every mob in front of you.
5- Hydra (arcane)
I find hydra better than blizzard. You can move around while hydra takes care of everything. Arcane is grat because with temporal flux passive you slow the mobs.
6- Defensive skill of choice.
Here u can try teleport(fracture) or anything else u think can be usefull. Personally i use slow time with any rune.
PASSIVES
1- Critical mass or evocation.
CM its Great for reducing archon cooldown, despite u dont have any heavy CM proc, any crit adds up. (question: CM reduces archon's teleport cooldown?)
2- Temporal flux. Slows mobs with hydra. Archon does arcane dmg too, so its a win-win situation
3- Glass cannon if you have trouble killing stuff or blur if you have trouble staying alive.
ITEMS
You have great gear. Weapon its ideal.
Helmet its GREAT but i think u will be better off with a (no more than 2M) mempo of twilight
You will need an extra item with movement speed. The obvious choice its lacunis (with some pickup radius, so you dont have 0)
Everything else seems about right to give the build a try, i dont think you will need to buy anything else for now.
Hope it helps.
This is exactly I've said she would not play, as she despise Archon.
As for items: no need for more move speed, the goal here is to create something that she would like not something that would be built around efficiency.
Oh yea, girl being a girl will not wear better equipment since it is "ugly"
Now you see my problems
Arcane torrent disruption gives extra damage to attacks made by your arcane orb and arcane hydra. And with enough APOC, you can replace the signature spell with arcane torrent. I think she would do fine with her gear.(if apoc is enough i just can't remember how much is needed)
Arcane torrent disruption gives extra damage to attacks made by your arcane orb and arcane hydra. And with enough APOC, you can replace the signature spell with arcane torrent. I think she would do fine with her gear.(if apoc is enough i just can't remember how much is needed)
yes, nice build, but should change CM for astral prescense i think
Arcane torrent disruption gives extra damage to attacks made by your arcane orb and arcane hydra. And with enough APOC, you can replace the signature spell with arcane torrent. I think she would do fine with her gear.(if apoc is enough i just can't remember how much is needed)
yes, nice build, but should change CM for astral prescense i think
apoc on an off hand and a storm crow helm are cheap.
if you're having trouble with reflect damage, i would suggest seeing if you can get some physical resist cheap as that's what stops RD.
I sympathize with you about the "cute" armor... I spent about 5M buying armor for my wife when she hit 60 with her wizard and I was so proud of the specs I got her and that was her first comment... "Man, I look stupid"
lol
LOH doesn't work well with the wizard at all. Magic weapon with blood magic rune and life steal on your weapon are pretty much the only way to go, but with low dps, that's tough. LOH works EXTREMELY well with wicked wind, but for that to work you need stun lock, which pretty much makes you CM, which you've already said she doesn't like. I know loh doesn't work with hydra, blizzard, or arcane torrent, but it does work with archon and your signature spells. Life steal works with everything.
Spectral blades do nice dmg and some extra healing ofc helps with the face tanking. Blizzard for some extra damage, same for the venom hydra. Magic weapon - blood magic for some extra dps and healing. Energy armor - prismatic for increased survivability.
Passives - galvanizing ward, mostly so that energy armor lasts longer
Astral presence, less AP problem from blizzard spam
Cold blooded - nice dps increase combined with blizzard
Gear:
I agree with others, blackthorne's pants would be a good start
Get a weapon with LoH instead of lifesteal, lifesteal really only works well with archon for wizards
I have pretty decent LoH/crit/apoc wand (black dmg ) spare that you can have for it if you like.
Shoulder, comparable stats but with +life%/vit (vile ward might be good )
amulet: you should be able to get one with comparable dps stats ( or a bit higher) and quite a chunk of vit on it for not too much
Helm: same stats as this but with a good chunk of armor ( likely end up with tal'rasha's helm )
You'll lose EHP for her on the blackthorne's pants but the LoH will easily make up for that , the rest should increase it.
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IAS-starvec cm-wizard.
Still looking for friends to play (eu)
Spectral blades do nice dmg and some extra healing ofc helps with the face tanking. Blizzard for some extra damage, same for the venom hydra. Magic weapon - blood magic for some extra dps and healing. Energy armor - prismatic for increased survivability.
Passives - galvanizing ward, mostly so that energy armor lasts longer
Astral presence, less AP problem from blizzard spam
Cold blooded - nice dps increase combined with blizzard
Gear:
I agree with others, blackthorne's pants would be a good start
Get a weapon with LoH instead of lifesteal, lifesteal really only works well with archon for wizards
I have pretty decent LoH/crit/apoc wand (black dmg ) spare that you can have for it if you like.
Shoulder, comparable stats but with +life%/vit (vile ward might be good )
amulet: you should be able to get one with comparable dps stats ( or a bit higher) and quite a chunk of vit on it for not too much
Helm: same stats as this but with a good chunk of armor ( likely end up with tal'rasha's helm )
You'll lose EHP for her on the blackthorne's pants but the LoH will easily make up for that , the rest should increase it.
Thanks for the suggestion of build.
As for vile ward and tal rasha they are "ugly" so until there is coloring of legendaries this is out of the question for her.
I would like to thank all of you for the help, truly appreciate it!
Generally, what I do when trying to figure out a build is to find a skill (archon), skill combo (frost nova - critical mass), or aspect of the class/game that you'd like to focus on, then build off of that. I also try to focus on one or two attack skills and have everything else be support. Judging by her profile, I'm guessing she likes Blizzard, so I'll go off of that.
Something like this might appeal to her. Order of picks:
Blizzard
Cold-blooded (adds damage with no downside)
Blur (defense)
Energy Armor (defense)
Magic Weapon (damage + defense)
Diamond Skin (defense)
Familiar (damage)
Spectral Blades (damage + life)
Galvanizing Wizard (life + convenience)
As you go down the list, everything becomes more and more optional and customizable for play style. Maybe she just wants to demolish everything in lower MPs or be a storm wizard, in which case maybe she should drop energy armor for storm armor. Maybe she wants to go completely frost based so she goes with frozen armor. Really, you just start off with the idea and look for synergies between skills to maximize the effects of your main aspect you are looking for.
I think that if you (just you or both of you) pick out skills in this fashion, she'll have more fun with the build than she would by just taking someone else's build offline.
Have you tried a Arcane Dynamo Meteor build? If you can CC mobs with a freeze-doc or a CM wizard the build performs very well, produces big numbers and is easy to play.
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So lets start:
My girlfriend started playing D3 a while back and now she wants to play Wizzard in inferno MP1-2, BUT she doesn't want to play Archon and CM. Since I have not played wizzard at all I'm not able to create a build that would suite her needs, and thus I'm asking for help here.
This is a link to her char: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Iskra-1391/hero/17482931
Request is to :
1)create a build that will be easy to play since she is not a great gamer, and not so skilled with keyboard. Now you know why CM is not an option.
2) char would have a lot of HP, and would not die often! This is more important to her than creating a efficient build, so something that would be able to kill relatively fast but have the ability to heal and easy to play.
20 Milion Budget for upgrades is available.
I feel like the char has enough DPS, the problem for me is what skill choices do we have in order to be able to face tank the Elites. Some LS is there we can buy a some more LOH on amy and maybe on pants(blackthorne), but real question is what spells to take.
Any help or suggestion is appreciated. Thanks!
I give her candy when she finds a legendary/set item... not sure if that makes me a bad father or not
Only a few spells she casts all the time, everything else has to be some kind of long lasting spell that she casts every minute or so.
What kind of spells would work good with LOH?
This is actually a very good idea. I shall do that. She does not have a problem ATM with any elites but reflect, whenever they come it is like panic attack all over the place. So I would need to put together something that she can facetank RD with. This is actually the source of the most frustrations.
I've actually tried playing with her char against RD and had no problem, but kiting for her is not an option as she likes to stand and fight.
First i want to state that CM Wicked wind build is the easyest to play. But archon its a lot more fun. So im gonna tell my experience with archon.
The build:
Using archon is a great choice, u melt everything before anything touches u. Its complicated at first because she will have to learn to move fast and leave gold piles behind (i manage to make archon work even picking up all rares). Archon isnt good for "free roam", u need to have a farming route that can keep archon up.
Archon lives with Life steal an movement speed. Life steal u have, but u lack move speed.
When u loose archon and its on cooldown you will have to kite. (unless u have GREAT gear).
SKILLS:
1- Archon.
Rune: Teleport (if you are having trouble keeping archon up) or slow time (if u are having trouble surviving)
2 - Armor skill
Energy is good when u are out of archon, but inst necessary when u are on archon. Energy(force) is ok for now, but she may want to try storm armor(scramble) when she gets the hand on kiting.
3- Magic weapon - blood magic (ok)
Now all the changes:
Kiting phase. This is the combination of skills i find usefull for kiting:
4- Shock pulse (piercing orb)
Great skill for kiting. Decent damage and hits almos every mob in front of you.
5- Hydra (arcane)
I find hydra better than blizzard. You can move around while hydra takes care of everything. Arcane is grat because with temporal flux passive you slow the mobs.
6- Defensive skill of choice.
Here u can try teleport(fracture) or anything else u think can be usefull. Personally i use slow time with any rune.
PASSIVES
1- Critical mass or evocation.
CM its Great for reducing archon cooldown, despite u dont have any heavy CM proc, any crit adds up. (question: CM reduces archon's teleport cooldown?)
2- Temporal flux. Slows mobs with hydra. Archon does arcane dmg too, so its a win-win situation
3- Glass cannon if you have trouble killing stuff or blur if you have trouble staying alive.
ITEMS
You have great gear. Weapon its ideal.
Helmet its GREAT but i think u will be better off with a (no more than 2M) mempo of twilight
You will need an extra item with movement speed. The obvious choice its lacunis (with some pickup radius, so you dont have 0)
Everything else seems about right to give the build a try, i dont think you will need to buy anything else for now.
Hope it helps.
EDIT: CMWW its easyest beacuse, despite she has to use every skill you can just press all the buttons at once and the build will likely still work quite well. The boring part its that it takes long time to kill stuff.
As for items: no need for more move speed, the goal here is to create something that she would like not something that would be built around efficiency.
Oh yea, girl being a girl will not wear better equipment since it is "ugly"
Now you see my problems
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#ecXiSO!ZgU!aaaaZc
Arcane torrent disruption gives extra damage to attacks made by your arcane orb and arcane hydra. And with enough APOC, you can replace the signature spell with arcane torrent. I think she would do fine with her gear.(if apoc is enough i just can't remember how much is needed)
yes, nice build, but should change CM for astral prescense i think
No problem, that was actually my fault, I was showcasing the archon to her, could not convince her though.
Forgot to revert to previous build.
You are probably right since she only as 7 apoc.
if you're having trouble with reflect damage, i would suggest seeing if you can get some physical resist cheap as that's what stops RD.
I sympathize with you about the "cute" armor... I spent about 5M buying armor for my wife when she hit 60 with her wizard and I was so proud of the specs I got her and that was her first comment... "Man, I look stupid"
lol
LOH doesn't work well with the wizard at all. Magic weapon with blood magic rune and life steal on your weapon are pretty much the only way to go, but with low dps, that's tough. LOH works EXTREMELY well with wicked wind, but for that to work you need stun lock, which pretty much makes you CM, which you've already said she doesn't like. I know loh doesn't work with hydra, blizzard, or arcane torrent, but it does work with archon and your signature spells. Life steal works with everything.
Spectral blades do nice dmg and some extra healing ofc helps with the face tanking. Blizzard for some extra damage, same for the venom hydra. Magic weapon - blood magic for some extra dps and healing. Energy armor - prismatic for increased survivability.
Passives - galvanizing ward, mostly so that energy armor lasts longer
Astral presence, less AP problem from blizzard spam
Cold blooded - nice dps increase combined with blizzard
Gear:
I agree with others, blackthorne's pants would be a good start
Get a weapon with LoH instead of lifesteal, lifesteal really only works well with archon for wizards
I have pretty decent LoH/crit/apoc wand (black dmg ) spare that you can have for it if you like.
Shoulder, comparable stats but with +life%/vit (vile ward might be good )
amulet: you should be able to get one with comparable dps stats ( or a bit higher) and quite a chunk of vit on it for not too much
Helm: same stats as this but with a good chunk of armor ( likely end up with tal'rasha's helm )
You'll lose EHP for her on the blackthorne's pants but the LoH will easily make up for that , the rest should increase it.
Still looking for friends to play (eu)
Thanks for the suggestion of build.
As for vile ward and tal rasha they are "ugly" so until there is coloring of legendaries this is out of the question for her.
I would like to thank all of you for the help, truly appreciate it!
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WlXOjS!fZW!YZacac
Something like this might appeal to her. Order of picks:
Blizzard
Cold-blooded (adds damage with no downside)
Blur (defense)
Energy Armor (defense)
Magic Weapon (damage + defense)
Diamond Skin (defense)
Familiar (damage)
Spectral Blades (damage + life)
Galvanizing Wizard (life + convenience)
As you go down the list, everything becomes more and more optional and customizable for play style. Maybe she just wants to demolish everything in lower MPs or be a storm wizard, in which case maybe she should drop energy armor for storm armor. Maybe she wants to go completely frost based so she goes with frozen armor. Really, you just start off with the idea and look for synergies between skills to maximize the effects of your main aspect you are looking for.
I think that if you (just you or both of you) pick out skills in this fashion, she'll have more fun with the build than she would by just taking someone else's build offline.
As for build, you can also try a arcane orb build, with hydra. I use to run that before i am gear enough for a hybrid archon build.