I wanted to start a thread for us hardcore players heading into RoS. I've seen plenty of builds, suggestions, theorycrafting etc. However, playing hardcore is a completely different animal, and so I thought it fitting we have somewhere to discuss these things.
I've been playing the beta a bit, and although I'm not on HC beta, I've been playing as though I am. I've not died yet, and building defensively of course.
I will post some builds that I've tried a little later, but some common skills among all my builds so far are:
1. Unstoppable Anomoly
2. Dominance
3. Force Weapon - Deflection
These three skills I consider a must have for hardcore wizards, at least until later into ROS when you are extremely well geared.
I will try to post some of my experiences and such a little later when I have more time.
I'm not sure about that. At first I was like "yeah, it is". But we're just too much used to infinite Arcane Power; there are quite a few builds already where you don't run into AP problems. People also underestimate signature spells and prodigy as AP source; plus, there are high DPS spells that you can't just spam anyways (e.g., Meteor with cooldown, Blizzard).
For quite a few builds 20 APoC are a must, yes; but I'm sure a few months into RoS we'll see new builds emerge that work with 10 or even 0 APoC. It'd be a shame if two handed weapons and non-wizard helmets are useless for wizards, don't think Blizzard wants to go there.
Well I wasn't discounting signature spells, but lets face it, if you can have a build without using signature spells, and without running out of AP, then I'm virtually sure that latter build is more powerful. Not to say there is anything wrong with sig spells. I was using the ice missle for quite some time to set up enemies for meteors. They absolutely have thier place.
Also, its hard to justify one of 2 free passive spots for prodigy. Playing Hardcore kind of limits you to two, because 99% of the time you will want Unstable Anomaly and Dominance.
Something else I was hoping to discuss is power sources. The offhands I have seen in ROS are just completely lacking in average damage.
I have yet to see a source I would replace even a mediocre source from vanilla with. Oculus, Chantodo, Triumvirate, and Tals with a decent damage roll, outweigh every source I've seen so far in beta. What is the deal with that?
I've got a quite decent Triumvirate on live, but found plenty of good sources to replace it with. Here's my current one. As you can see, the average damage is higher than on live, so you must have been really unlucky.
I've got a quite decent Triumvirate on live, but found plenty of good sources to replace it with. Here's my current one. As you can see, the average damage is higher than on live, so you must have been really unlucky.
I think he's talking about the ptr. Ive played the ptr a lot and I haven't found any source or mojo upgrades either. They usually roll really low avg damage at lv 60. The upgrade mojo I have is from a friend with ros who found a lv70 mojo with lv reduction.
Oh, I thought he was talking about beta (3rd sentence in OP he said so). But some of the comments here would certainly make more sense on PTR - signature spells, Prodigy, etc. are certainly not useless on Torment @70 and Dominance is almost useless there (shield just doesn't build up if all mobs have billions of HP). But didn't want to comment too much since this is HC and I'm not really playing HC a whole lot.
Yes, I was talking about beta. I will post some of the sources I'm finding at level 70 for reference.
As far as Torment goes, well, I'm still playing on normal. As I just haven't aquired enough gear to ramp it up at all. (Just hit 70).
I guess I will come to discover that dominance isn't all it's cracked up to be? I can understand why, if you aren't killing trash quickly, then you have no shields...
On normal, dominance is quite useful. But on Torment difficulty mobs have just so much HP (elites in the billions) that Dominance is, in most cases, not on my top 5 (or even top 10) passives. And it even got nerfed with last beta patch.
I agree wtih bagstone on dominance. It also got nerf'd in the latest patch so it just isnt' that useful on higher difficulty levels. It's only useful against trash mobs but you dont need it there. You need it against elites, which in the vast majority of cases, it doesnt do much.
I've also been trying to work on a build involving frozen orb, but I need more AP.
So I've been trying to find gear with APoC, but it seems they removed it from weapons?
Does this mean APoC can only be found on Offhand and Helm now?
So max APoC would be 20?
Yes, max APoC is 20 (unless you reforge a level 60 weapon). There's no APoC on wands anymore in RoS.
So that's a pretty much must have stat on OH and Helm then.
I'm not sure about that. At first I was like "yeah, it is". But we're just too much used to infinite Arcane Power; there are quite a few builds already where you don't run into AP problems. People also underestimate signature spells and prodigy as AP source; plus, there are high DPS spells that you can't just spam anyways (e.g., Meteor with cooldown, Blizzard).
For quite a few builds 20 APoC are a must, yes; but I'm sure a few months into RoS we'll see new builds emerge that work with 10 or even 0 APoC. It'd be a shame if two handed weapons and non-wizard helmets are useless for wizards, don't think Blizzard wants to go there.
Something else I was hoping to discuss is power sources. The offhands I have seen in ROS are just completely lacking in average damage.
I have yet to see a source I would replace even a mediocre source from vanilla with. Oculus, Chantodo, Triumvirate, and Tals with a decent damage roll, outweigh every source I've seen so far in beta. What is the deal with that?
I've got a quite decent Triumvirate on live, but found plenty of good sources to replace it with. Here's my current one. As you can see, the average damage is higher than on live, so you must have been really unlucky.
Oh, I thought he was talking about beta (3rd sentence in OP he said so). But some of the comments here would certainly make more sense on PTR - signature spells, Prodigy, etc. are certainly not useless on Torment @70 and Dominance is almost useless there (shield just doesn't build up if all mobs have billions of HP). But didn't want to comment too much since this is HC and I'm not really playing HC a whole lot.
On normal, dominance is quite useful. But on Torment difficulty mobs have just so much HP (elites in the billions) that Dominance is, in most cases, not on my top 5 (or even top 10) passives. And it even got nerfed with last beta patch.
I agree wtih bagstone on dominance. It also got nerf'd in the latest patch so it just isnt' that useful on higher difficulty levels. It's only useful against trash mobs but you dont need it there. You need it against elites, which in the vast majority of cases, it doesnt do much.
I guess I will have to re-evaluate my passive choice for that slot. Blur is probably a good alternative for added damage reduction against any damage.