Hello everyone! I've been a long time lurker around these forums (and DiabloFans in general) and thought it might be time to step out of the shadows, so to speak. I've recently written up a rather large guide on the official forums and decided to post it here as well. Hope you all enjoy and learn a bit!
METD (METD#1485 on Bnet)
Note: I am far from an expert with the Wizard and some other posters will have a MUCH deeper level of insight into the class. It's what I've been using at Torment 4, and could probably work well up to Torment 5 without major issue. Beyond that, I have little experience to draw upon and would just be making uninformed assumptions. Also, if you notice something is wrong or have a suggestion on improving the build, feel free to chime in with some constructive criticism.
I'm calling this build "Torrent Overwhelming" (points if you get the reference, not a hard one to figure out though). Let me know what you think of the name. Now, let's get into it!
ACRONYMS
A short list of acronyms I use in this guide. most people won't need this, but it's here for those who aren't as familiar with the terminology many of us use!
AD - Arcane Dynamo
AP - Arcane Power
APoC - Arcane Power on Crit
APS - Attacks per Second
AS - Attack Speed
(Also known as IAS - Increased Attack Speed)
AT - Arcane Torrent
CDR - Cooldown Reduction
EA - Energy Armor
LoH - Life on Hit
LoK - Life on Kill
MW - Magic Weapon
OS - Open Socket
RCR - Resource Cost Reduction
SB - Spectral Blades
UW - Unwavering Will
Obviously, the core of the build is centered on Arcane Torrent. My goals here were to maximize damage by building around a fair amount of Arcane Power generation to increase channel times on AT. Secondary was building a great deal of defensive power to, once again, increase channel times on AT before having to move. By having the toughness AND sustain to "facetank" a great deal of content, we increase our effective DPS in many situations.
This is what I would consider the bare-bones of the build. Beyond this exists a great deal of flexibility based on personal preference and gearing.
LMB
Spectral Blade (Siphoning Blade) - The obvious choice for AP generation when you're running a little dry.
Spectral Blade (Barrier Blades) - Also a viable option if you favor a bit more defensive power over AP generation. The shield proc does stack with MW - Deflection making you very tanky when casting Spectral Blades.
Electrocute (Surge of Power) - The main drawback being it won't be increased by the % Arcane Damage you'll be stacking on your items. The range however I find very convenient. And breaking stuff is oh so easy! (Suggested for AD builds, since it casts very fast, allowing you to charge your 5 stacks quickly!)
NOTE: This guide provides a solid "starting point" for your Wizard. As you gear up and optimize your gear, you will find that, eventually, you are able to channel AT on a single target for long periods of time. At this point it is very much recommended to consider dropping your Signature spell altogether in favor of something that provides more damage, utility or defensive power (whatever you're in need of most). Good options here will vary tremendously, but once you've reached this point, you should have a solid grasp on your character and should be able to decide what to put here based on how you like to play.
NOTE2: It has been brought to my attention that Arcane Dynamo works with channeled spells once again. This makes it a solid passive for us and opens up an alternate gearing path as well. By keeping a signature spell in our build, we technically free up some AP generation since we can fall back on our sig when we run out. This opens up both gearing options (by dropping APoC or RCR for other defensive or offensive affixes) or build options (dropping Familiar - Arcanot for Sparkflint or another skill that would provide more survivability/damage/utility). Thanks to wuffiliate for pointing out my mistake here!The passives section has been updated to reflect this.
RMB
AT - Cascade is our go-to rune in most situations. It holds up very well against the Disruption rune in single target situations and is superior in AoE situations from my observations. This being said, if running in a party with another Wizard who uses Arcane spells, making a quick change to Disruption would be advised since the extra damage gained overall in this situation would be superior to Cascade. Just make sure to coordinate with your party members! Running 2 Disruptions runes does nothing for anyone. Credit to Helycon for clarifying some details regarding the Cascade rune.
SKILL 1
I use Teleport - Safe Passage because it further reinforces the goal of being an immovable AT spamming machine while offering fantastic mobility when combined with Illusionist in difficult fights. Any other rune would work here however.
SKILL 2
Running Familiar - Arcanot is great for helping you with AP generation while you gear up toward some APoC. Once you feel comfortable dropping the 2 AP/sec this becomes a free skill. My personal favorite is Familiar - Sparkflint for more raw DPS but you could just as easily throw in any other spell. Be creative!
SKILL 3
Magic Weapon - Deflection is quite useful for tanking damage. It "scales" with mitigation, which is central to this setup, and offers some synergy with health generation (Loh, LoK, Life/sec). An alternative if you don't really need the extra survivability would be to go with MW - Conduit for more AP generation or any of the other Magic Weapon runes for some extra DPS.
SKILL 4
Energy Armor is nearly required for the huge increase in effective health (EHP) since we'll be taking a lot of hits. Running EA - Prismatic Armor offers ridiculous mitigation bonuses but if you want to squeeze out a bit of extra DPS, running EA - Pinpoint Barrier offers a good balance of damage, utility (with APoC) and mitigation.
For those with balls of steel (or stupid amounts of toughness), running Storm Armor - Power of the Storm makes holding a perma-channel AT very easy. however, the trade-off of DPS (which you will lose by gearing for more mitigation) for increased channel times is debatable at best I think.
Passives
Illusionist is mandatory (when running Teleport) because of the fantastic mobility it affords you in difficult situations.
Blur is just a huge boost of free mitigation, but with increasing gear levels you may be able to drop this for more utility or DPS oriented passives.
Unwavering Will is not mandatory but honestly is just WAY TOO GOOD to pass up. Seeing as AT is a channeled ability we will often be sitting in place for substantial amounts of time, in these cases, UW is just free mitigation AND damage. I don't know why anyone would considering taking anything else here.
The last passive is very flexible. Temporal Flux is a solid option because it offers a great deal of "invisible" mitigation (if that melee minion can't get in range to hit you, that's an effective 100% mitigation right there!). Other options include Astral Presence, Audacity, Arcane Dynamo or Elemental Exposure (if you can get 2+ different elemental sources of damage into your built, otherwise, it's not worth it for 5% dmg).
This being said, we also have the option of running Arcane Dynamo, which I would strongly suggest at this time. This means keeping a signature spell, and alters the way the build plays a bit, however the increase in damage is SUBSTANTIAL. The 60% bonus will persist for an entire *UNINTERUPTED* channel of AT, this means knockbacks/knockups/vortex pulls/running out of AP or releasing the channel button for even a second will see that bonus damage lost until you "charge" the proc again. I would highly recommend trying this passive first before considering other options.
Survivability
Survivability is very important, especially for us since we want to tank to a reasonable extent. Gearing can be tricky for some because "toughness" on your character sheet can be quite misleading. Vitality "inflates" your toughness while not necessarily increasing your ability to survive by a relative amount. This is due to a variety of factors but the one we will take advantage of is how mitigation interacts with healing and our shields.
Because of this, we want to heavily focus on building mitigation, Armor and All Resists being the most common but stats such as "Reduce Damage From Melee/Ranged Attacks by x%" are useful as well. Vitality is still very important, but do not stack it. Keep a decent amount, but focus on All Res and Armor for survivability. Also keep in mind that the more mitigation you stack, the more valuable every point of Vitality becomes.
Note: The "Reduced Damage from Melee/Ranged" affix can roll as a secondary affix, which is tremendously important to remember! While it's unlikely you'll be able to reroll a secondary stat on many pieces of equipment you have, it's worth considering on items that you don't want to change any primary stats on.
Resource Management
APoC can only roll on Sources and Wizard Helms (our unique class items) and, since Patch 2.0, can only roll 3-4 APoC per item. This puts our maximum APoC with lvl 70 gear at 8. This means channeling AT on single targets indefinitely is now rather difficult to achieve, but not impossible. To compensate for this nerf, we now have access to a new stat; Resource Cost Reduction. This stat is fantastic. Idealy you will want both APoC and RCR.
Note: It is best to gear RCR on a few items, say 2 or 3, with higher rolls than to stack it everywhere in smaller amounts (so aim for max rolls on the items you pick it up on). This is because the stat does not stack additively with itself. Thus, every time you add more RCR, it becomes less effective. If you're interested in a more detailed explanation, post any questions you have here.
Life Sustain
We will be hit, A LOT, while playing this build. Therefore we need a way to restore lost health. We will find this with 3 different stats; Life on Hit (LoH), Life on Kill (LoK) and Life per Second (Life/sec). Ideally you will want a balance of all 3, but if you have to prioritize them I would go in this order; Life/sec > LoH > LoK. The reasoning for this is because our proc coefficient on AT isn't terribly high so LoH will not be as effective as it might be with other skills, and LoK does literally nothing for you in single target situations (usually boss fights, but champions with no/dead minions can also sometimes cause problems). This makes life/sec VERY consistent comparatively, especially in situations where you find yourself not casting spells, LoH does nothing for you then (ex: while frozen, or kiting).
One very important note to make however is that Life/sec and LoH are both primary stats while LoK is a secondary stat. This makes LoK very efficient in gear because it never detracts from potential damage affixes and the only defensive affixes it could replace would be the single resistance rolls and the Reduced Damage from Melee/Ranged affix. Rolling 2 of any of these on an item's secondary affixes is fantastic for mitigation/sustain.
Also consider how all this sustain synergizes with our mitigation. The more mitigation we have, the more value our sustain and shields have! This works extremely well with our MW - Deflection shield (and SB - Barrier Blades if you're running it as well). The less damage you take per attack (from a % point of view), the greater % of your effective health every 1 healing/shield provides. You can brush up on the specifics by looking up up more mechanically oriented posts. I highly recommend this thread; http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8770117237 . While very technical, everything is well explained and this can be a great source of fundamental knowledge for not only the Wizard class but every other class as well.
Damage
The most strait-forward way to increase your damage is through Critical hits. Thus we want a great deal of Crit Chance. And since we're focusing on a fair amount of Crit Chance, stacking some Crit Damage is a no brainer. Too much of one and the other becomes less effective so keeping a healthy ratio of Crit Chance to Crit Damage is crucial. Most people recommend a 10:1 ratio of Crit Damage: Crit Chance (ex: if you have 400% Crit Damage, try to have at least 40% crit chance). Also, we wants TONS of Intelligence (note that every 10int gives you 1all res too! Therefore, Int increases your damage substantially as well as adding a respectable amount of mitigation) so get this affix on EVERY SINGLE ITEM!
The most important (and largest) upgrade you should always be looking for is a high DPS 1hand weapon with an open socket and lots of Intelligence. The socket should have the highest quality Emerald you can get put into it. Bonus points for finding a weapon with some nice Resource Cost Reduction on it! The speed of the weapon should also be considered. The faster you attack, the more quickly you will drain your AP. A wand is great because it can roll +max AP as a secondary affix, but does come with a base 1.4 APS. An axe or even a hammer would be very useful if you're still struggling with AP generation. But in the end, use the highest DPS weapon available, within reason at least.
This brings me to an important point about Attack Speed. We avoid it for the most part. AS is great for average DPS, but it does increase the rate at which we use up AP while channeling AT. It does help AP generation with our Signature spell, but overall I would pass on the stat in most cases. Do not discount an item just because it has AS on it, but I would lend more weight to Crit Chance, Crit Damage or other DPS stats. The more passive AP generation you have however, the more AS you can safely use without taxing your AP usage too much.
Finally, ALWAYS try to fit the following stats on your gear whenever possible; "Increase Arcane Damage by x%" and "Increase Arcane Torrent Damage by x%". These stats DO NOT show up on your character sheet's damage. This makes the Damage display somewhat deceptive (just like Toughness... seeing a trend here?). These stats stack multiplicatively with themselves as well as each other. This means that every time you get another one, the total increase is greater than the sum of its parts. (Ex: 15% and 20% = 38%, not the 35% you would expect). These are such a massive increase in effective damage compared to EVERY other stat that you want as much of these as you can manage.
Note: The Increased Arcane Damage affix can roll on bracers and amulets while Increased Arcane Torrent Damage can roll on helms, boots and sources. Some legendary items can have these affixes despite not belonging to these categories but I won't be listing those here.
ITEMS
Wondering where you should get which stats? Here's a rough guideline:
Helm: Focus on offensive stats here. Intelligence, Crit Chance, APoC and Increase Arcane Torrent Damage are what you're looking for. A good place to put some Vitality if you don't need the APoC. A socket can work as well for the %Life increase, but only if you can't find something better.
Shoulders: Primarily a defensive item. Intelligence, Vitality, Armor, All Resist are all great here. Can roll some nice Resource Cost Reduction which I would highly recommend trying to roll here.
Chest: Mostly defensive, but rolling 3sockets is almost a must, the amount of All Resist or Intelligence you can put in here is awesome. Other than the sockets, Intelligence, Armor All Resist will be what you want here.
Belt: Primarily defensive item. Intelligence, Armor, All Resist and a good roll of Life/sec would be ideal, if not, more Vitality.
Pants: Mostly defensive again. Rolling 2 sockets is ideal, other stats should be Intelligence, Vitality, Armor, All Resist or Life/sec.
Boots: Defensive item. Intelligence, Armor, All Resist, Increased Arcane Torrent Damage. Squeezing in Movement Speed here is very nice for clear speed if you don't have Paragon lvl 200 to max it there. Some Life/sec would work as well.
Gloves: One of your biggest sources of raw damage. Intelligence, Crit Chance, Crit Damage are pretty much mandatory here. If you're lucky enough to roll a trifecta (by getting Attack Speed) and can handle the increased AP usage, fantastic! Otherwise, look for some more Armor, All Resist or Vitality.
Bracers: A mostly offensive item. Increased Arcane Damage, Crit Chance and Intelligence are a must here. Last affix can be any of the standard defensive rolls (Vitality, Armor, All Resist, Life/sec).
Jewelry: The bulk of your offensive power comes from these 3 items. You're looking for the same thing on all three, for the most part.The only exception is that you want Increased Arcane Damage on your amulet (it can't roll on rings). Affixes to look for include; Intelligence, Crit Chance, Crit Damage and +damage (ex: +21-58 damage).
Source: Another large source of damage. A high +damage range is ideal, for obvious reasons. Intelligence, Crit Chance, APoC and Increased Arcane Torrent Damage are the most important affixes to look for. Getting a high roll of Increased Max Arcane Power on one of the secondaries is quite nice too, but not required.
Weapon: As mentioned earlier, you want the highest DPS weapon possible! The base damage of the weapon is what is multiplied by all our offensive stats, so the higher the damage, the more "effective" all our other affixes are. A socket is mandatory here, the massive Crit Damage you'll get from socketing an Emerald is very powerful. Intelligence is nearly mandatory. A nice roll of Resource Cost Reduction can be quite nice, though it will likely come at the expense of some offensive power. Anything else is less than ideal, but if you're really in need of Life on Hit, weapons can roll this affix in large amounts. Also, if you're lucky, getting a Life on Kill affix for one of your secondaries is fantastic here, seeing as (I believe) weapons can roll this affix in amounts that are MUCH larger than any other item.
Update: The % damage affix was recently fixed so that it now properly applies to elemental damage rolled on weapons. This makes it a great affix to roll on your weapon, should you be lucky enough to either get it or an open socket, allowing you to reroll for it. I would value this stat as 3rd in priority (Intelligence and the open socket being more valuable), even above RCR.
Legendaries with unique effects are highly sought after. Finding a specific legendary however can be ridiculously time consuming (and many will never find some legendaries at all) so if you're lucky enough to find something useful, try to alter your build after the unique effect as much as is reasonable.
How does the build play? It's quite simple really, you run around looking for large groups of mobs (gathering up a few smaller groups works well too) and, once you have a nicely clumped up group, plant your feet into the group and start channeling Arcane Torrent into the largest "cluster" of mobs. Move your cursor and things start dying everywhere! I generally don't waste time focusing single target white mobs with AT unless they're one of those "beefy" mobs that tend to be able to knock you back (resetting Unwavering Will). Whenever possible, just kite the mob into another pack and focus it down then. This keeps our clear speed more efficient by making the most use of our AoE damage and having to stand still for 1.5secs to enable UW.
Now, just because we build somewhat tanky and use UW does not mean you become an immovable object in all situations. This is most important when facing Elite or Champion packs (or some bosses as well) that have potent (or several) ground targeted effects. NEVER EVER EVER stand in a Frozen "bomb". The second or 2 you lose control of your character is enough to get you killed very quickly. This is because you can't run or pop a health potion until the freeze effect dissipates. What amplifies the danger is that you are no longer casting and therefore not procing your Deflection stacks. This is DANGEROUS, you have been warned.
Teleport is a fantastic tool for avoiding ground effects, but be smart about when you use it. Teleporting to avoid an Arcane Lazor when the Elites also have the Frozen affix can be perilous. You may find yourself with Teleport on cooldown and Frozen bombs all around you with no way to avoid the inevitable freeze. Other ground effects are not as mortally threatening but standing in a Desecrator or Poison pool increases the damage you take by a fair bit. Arcane Lazorz do a great deal of damage but are usually fairly easy to avoid (Unless you run into a Horde Champion who's minions have the Arcane Enchanted affix. Those are a NIGHTMARE to deal with, LAZORZ EVERYWHERE!!!) Ultimately, you need to get familiar with your own survivability to know when you can take the extra damage and when doing so would be dangerous.
Take care when out of AP and using your signature spell, your overall survivability may temporarily lower until you get back to channeling AT (unless running SB-BB, then your survivability INCREASES for the most part).
Also, when not dealing with nasty affixes, do not hesitate to use Teleport - Safe Passage as extra mitigation or to create distance to kite with if necessary. And sometimes, it is necessary to kite particularly nasty packs. I cannot stress this enough; just because we run UW does not mean we just sit in one place and take a ton of damage. Re-activating the passive is fairly quick after some careful repositioning.
FOLLWERS (Solo only)
Followers have received a fairly nice buff at level 70 (and with Loot 2.0 in general). This is because items roll massive amounts of main stats compared to pre-2.0, especially at lvl 70. In case some of you are not aware, followers QUADRUPLE the main stats on their items. This is HUGE when you consider that some 2-handers can roll over 900 to any given stat (that's 2800 int for your enchantress on her weapon alone!) Gearing followers is fairly simple then; get as much Vitality and their main stat as possible on their items. Mitigation is great too, but they can get such ridiculous health pools now that mitigation is only truly important in higher torment levels.
Each follower has their own advantages/disadvantages and choosing which one you want to run with is purely up to personal preference. For this reason I won't post any follower "builds", it's so easy to change them up that anyone can alter their abilities on the fly to find out what works best for their setup.
Templar: If you need a tank, Kormac's your man. Able to equip a shield and taunt enemies means that choosing the Templar offers some substantial defensive perks. But he also offers some nice utility as well! For those who want more AP generation, his 4th set of abilities has a passive that adds 1.4 AP/sec to your Wizard. He can also provide a massive increase in Life/sec (just shy of 5000hp/sec) passively. His heals are now massive and unless you stack some serious Vitality, will likely heal you for anywhere between 50% and 100% of your life! This makes for some pretty clutch moments. Overall, the Templar is your defensive option when choosing followers and is particularly useful in the early stages of gearing once you hit 70.
Scoundrel: Lyndon is hands down the funniest follower to have around. The witty conversations you'll overhear between he and your Wizard are reason enough to choose him as your follower as you play through the campaign. Not so much in adventure mode, however. The scoundrel provides almost exclusively one thing: damage, lots of it. He can also passively add some Crit Chance to your character or a small damage buff when you crit, increasing your DPS as well! He can provide some basic utility as well; a slow, a blind and a short stun, should you choose to allocate those skills. One slight detriment to using the scoundrel is that we CAN equip bows, meaning that 80% of bows you find will have Intelligence on them because of the Smart Loot system. Having a monk or Demon hunter craft a bow or crossbow for him is easy enough however.
Enchantress: Much like the Scoundrel, Eirena provides mostly damage during your travels. I find her utility to be slightly superior than the Scoundrel's, but this comes at the cost of good bit of her damage potential. The scoundrel's damage potential when skilling for more utility doesn't drop off as much as it does here. Her passives add either a small armor buff or reduced ranged damage and if you choose to pass on her utility you can also gain a passive 3% AS buff. Seeing as we don't want too much AS, I find this passive to be a bit weaker than the scoundrel's Crit Chance. I do find, however, that stacking damage on the enchantress to be the easiest amongst the followers, especially since we'll be seeing lots of high Intelligence 2-handers.
One last thing I would like to mention is a very cool setup you can use with the Enchantress should you be lucky enough to find an Azurewrath ( http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/azurewrath ). The Enchantress CAN equip 1hand weapons, but she does not gain the ability to wield a shield when she does so. The build revolves around Azurewrath's high Chance to Freeze. By equiping her with high amounts of AS and (ideally) an Amulet with Chance to Freeze as well, she becomes a monster at controlling enemies. Erosion is the only required skill with this setup. She will lay down an Erosion pool that ticks incredibly fast thanks to the AS on her rings and amulet and this will cause almost instant freezing to every mob that crosses into the pool. I used this setup with my WotB Barb last year and it was tremendously fun.
Also, keep en eye out for the lvl 61+ Legendary tokens (the follower unique items), there's two for each follower and the legendary effect on the first set of these is that it unlocks ALL the follower's skills at once. The other makes it so your follower cannot die. Quite powerful effects, should you be lucky enough to find one of these:
Core
Your points in core will be very strait-forward. Max out Movement speed first. This helps in clear speed which means more loot! Once maxed, it also frees up an affix on your boots. After that dump everything into Intelligence. Vitality could be considered if you're running very low on it on your gearset but I would advise against it. Max Arcane Power could have some niche applications, but overall, more DPS is preferred.
Offense
Critical Hit Damage <---> Critical Hit Chance > Attack Speed > Cooldown Reduction
I believe that in MOST cases, Crit Damage will provide a larger increase in damage than Crit Chance will, but this is highly dependent on your gear. Attack Speed comes 3rd because, despite us not wanting large amounts of it, it is still better than CDR (only skill with a Cooldown that we run is Teleport and Illusionist takes care of refreshing it during fights, this makes CDR nearly useless for this build unless you sub in another skill in one of the optional slots, then you could consider taking it 3rd).
Defense
Resist All <---> Armor > Life Regeneration > Life
This will depend a great deal on which affixes you rolled on your gear. Keep in mind that Armor is a % increase while the All Resist is a flat value. This means that if you have tons of armor rolls on your gear, Armor may provide a greater increase in survivability than Resist All. Life Regeneration is worth considering if you have a serious lack of sustain on your gear, but otherwise, max it 3rd. Life is last because we are not stacking Vitality, making returns on Life % meager at best.
Utility
Probably our most flexible points to allocate, thus I wont give a priority order here (though in most cases you'll want to max out Gold Find last). I usually run Resource Cost Reduction to help with AT channeling, but if you're fine on AP generation Life on Hit offers some nice sustain and Area Damage is nice for clearing out crowds of mobs (note: it will have no effect in single target situations, thus I would lean towards maxing it 3rd rather than 2nd).
Generally, you'll want to tailor your paragon point allocation based on what you're lacking most on your gear. This section in particular is based on personal preferences, but other factors will influence how you build here (ex: farming normal will have different priorities compared to progressing in Torment). Everything can easily be switched on the fly, so try out lots of different combinations till you find something that works for you!
TIPS AND TRICKS!
"Sweeping" (as I'm calling it): When running Temporal Flux and facing large packs of enemies, try sweeping your cursor across the front line (while casting AT of course, this kinda does nothing otherwise). This applies the slow to all mobs hit, turning an avalanche of mobs into a slowly crawling mudslide. By the time they reach you, they're all dead!
AT is a ground targeted ability. This presents a few technical limitations to the spell, namely, you cannot attack targets that are flying in "void" areas. Phantoms, bats and so on, often flying through chasms to reach your character. Other spells can target them (Electrocute) or be directed towards them (Frozen Orb), but with AT you can only wait till they reach walkable terrain to attack them. Not a major issue, but phantoms in particular are a pain sometimes because of this.
If you happen to be lucky enough to find them, Boots of Disregard syngergize rather well with our build. Their unique effect is as follows; "Gain 500 Life Regeneration per second for each second you stand still. This effect stacks up to 8 times". Drops from Act 3 Horadric Caches.
AT's missiles have a travel time. You can use this to your advantage once you get a good feel for the spell by leading a target (aiming where the target will be once your missiles reach that area). There are a few specific instances where doing this can be helpful.
Some monsters have charges or long windup attacks that displace your character. This will reset Unwavering Will. Whenever possible, try to move to avoid these attacks. You lose UW either way, but that split second where you have no control over your character can be very dangerous considering the attack itself usually does a large amount of damage. Just sidestep and keep on channeling!
This build (with Temporal Flux) is an amazing Goblin killer. The little suckers just can't get away as long as you're able to keep channeling AT on them. Goblin packs in rifts are another matter entirely however.
AT is not blocked by the waller affix, you can channel your missiles right over those pesky walls. This is a major advantage AT has over many of our other abilities, so make full advantage of it! When walls go up, teleport on the other side of them, thereby blocking incoming missles and making melee monsters have to walk around, giving you valuable time to channel with no incoming damage to worry about.
When running AD, sometimes charging the proc will take longer than it would to just channel an unbuffed AT into weak enemies. As you get familiar with your damage output, try to learn when to bother charging AD before casting AD and when it would make little to no difference (or even take longer). A good example of this is when facing scorpions in Act3 or the little Boggits in Act5.
-----------------------------------------------
Feel free to suggest other ideas!
CLOSING THOUGHTS
I do not claim that this build is "mine" in any way. I'm sure many others are running very similar or even identical builds out there. I just wanted to share what I've been using and explain my thoughts and ideas on how I got here. I did not model this build after anyone else's, it was of my own creation. I simply used various bits of information from a large amalgamation of different posts to create it. Jaetch's thread on how to create a build ( http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/11882388578 ) and apo's thread on mechanics ( http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8770117237 ) were both instrumental in this process, so major props to both of them for their fantastic work! Also would like to thank Hope for his/her thread ( http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/11985118574 ). The list of different builds out there is great for those who want to find something fun to play, but mostly the section on Elemental Damage/Skill damage affixes was very helpful when I first hit 70. There's also a massive section on all the different Legendaries we can use and their unique effects. If you're curious, definitely go check it out!
If you've gotten this far, then thank you for reading! My hope is that you've either learned even a little bit about this build (or the Wizard class in general) and, hopefully, will find some enjoyment in trying out this build! I look forward to the discussion to follow and hope that you'll all feel welcome to join in or even ask questions. Remember, no question is a stupid question! Well, MOST questions aren't anyway... I guess all that's left is:
Build lots of mitigation (All Res, Armor, %dmg reduced etc...) with enough vitality to survive bursts of damage (not too much however, 200k health is plenty, could even get away with less in some situations). Some health/sec and Health on Kill is very nice too!
Focus on Crit/Crit Dmg/Int to increase your sheet damage and get Increased Arcane torrent Damage % on boots, helm and, if possible, source. Increased Arcane Damage on bracers and amulet.
Get some APoC and Resource Cost Reduced to help maintain long channeling times.
Sit in place and cast Arcane Torrent on large packs of mobs. AT will proc deflection stacks that are much stronger because of all that mitigation we built for, letting you "tank" a good deal of stuff, meaning you get to cast AT even longer before having to break the channel in order to move away. Don't facetank Arcane Sentries or Frozen bombs unless you're 120% sure you can handle it, and even then, avoiding the damage is a good habit to get into. The other ground effects are less dangerous, so use your own judgment.
Go out there, farm away and hopefully get a few epic drops! For more details on where to go from here, read the rest of the guide
Arcane Dynamo does not work very well as a passive for ANY channeled spell. Reason for this is that the 60% damage bonus was changed a few months ago to apply on ONLY the FIRST tick of your channeled spell. This makes it an extremely underwhelming passive for this build (same would go for Ray of Frost or Disintegrate builds). Much better off taking just about anything else.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wise man once said: "The problem with common sense is that it's just not that common..."
Actually, it does work for the full duration of the channeled spell. I just tested it again to make sure, it 100% works until you stop channeling. It's easily the highest damage passive you can choose for this type of build.
After some testing, it does appear that Arcane Dynamo affects the entire duration of a single channel. I haven't seen anything on the forums indicating that this changed occurred, thus I just assumed the former to be true. Shot myself in the foot this time
So this does offer an alternate path towards "late-game" gearing. Instead of aiming for enough AP generation to drop your sig spell, you could use Arcane Dynamo and keep it, freeing up affixes such APoC and RCR on your gear since you can use a sig spell to regenerate AP when you run out. And with AD you'll want to pop off 5 sigs in between channels for that 60% buff anyway! Thanks for bringing this to my attention, will update the signature spell section accordingly.
I really appreciate your feedback wuffiliate, thank you!
Swordsman83, sorry I'm a noob >.> but I'm very glad you asked!
Good suggestion blgns. Will write up a TL:DR soon.
I didn't realize the whole Arcane Dynamo thing was a bug, apparently I was not paying close enough attention when I read the patch 2.0.4 notes. /facepalm
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wise man once said: "The problem with common sense is that it's just not that common..."
After some testing, it does appear that Arcane Dynamo affects the entire duration of a single channel. I haven't seen anything on the forums indicating that this changed occurred, thus I just assumed the former to be true. Shot myself in the foot this time
So this does offer an alternate path towards "late-game" gearing. Instead of aiming for enough AP generation to drop your sig spell, you could use Arcane Dynamo and keep it, freeing up affixes such APoC and RCR on your gear since you can use a sig spell to regenerate AP when you run out. And with AD you'll want to pop off 5 sigs in between channels for that 60% buff anyway! Thanks for bringing this to my attention, will update the signature spell section accordingly.
I really appreciate your feedback wuffiliate, thank you!
Swordsman83, sorry I'm a noob >.> but I'm very glad you asked!
It was brought to my attention through this thread, which completely switched me to arcane from cold haha. It's pretty insane. I play a very similar tanky arcane build, and i enjoy it immensely.
After reading up on it briefly and trying it out in game, I've already made the switch to using Arcane Dynamo. Still working out the kinks but I'm fairly happy with where I am now. My effective DPS on meaty targets (Rift guardians for example) has just shot right up, so long as I don't need to move often. Very very glad it was brought up, otherwise I might have been missing out for a rather long time before realizing my mistake.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wise man once said: "The problem with common sense is that it's just not that common..."
It certainly could safka. The only real difference (beyond gearing Disintergrate Damage % instead of AT Damage %) if that Disintergrate has a higher AP cost. This will shift your priorities into a bit more AP Generation or aiming for a slightly slower weapon to compensate, but its perfectly viable!
Transitioning from one element to another can be rather troublesome, especially if you're well geared in the first place. I would suggest using rares first to see if you like the playstyle before you invest too heavily in it. If you like it, then gearing is mostly a question of time (and a little luck). Either way, hope your switch goes as smoothly as it can!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wise man once said: "The problem with common sense is that it's just not that common..."
Alright! After ignoring my guide for a bit while I finished exams I've finally gotten around to updating again! And it's a bit one this time.
Added an Acronyms section at the beginning of the guide for those who might not be as familiar with the ones I use in the guide.
Expanded on the use of Arcane Dynamo in a few sections of the guide.
Updated the weapon section to note the bug fix to the % damage affix and to properly reflect its new value in comparison to other affixes.
Made a few minor changes in regards to the 2.0.5 patch, nothing major has changed however.
FINALLY gave the build a NAME! Lemme know what you all think of it, it's not the catchiest name but it's a start.
Added more tips in the Tips and Tricks section.
Fixing more spelling errors and so on...
Annnnnnd that's all for now! As usual, feel free to comment/ask questions, I welcome the discussion!
Thanks for the write up, looks as if I need to take a closer look at arcane dynamo. I come up with a similar build [1], that additonally uses Blackhole - Spellsteal for even faster clearing of thrash packs.
Noteworthy items:
Ess of Johann for "Vortex" on my enchantress; Cord of Sherma for AoE Blind/Slow making enemies hit you less; Oculus for less dmg from elites.
One of my first variations I made was to include Blackhole - Spellsteal into my build. It's a great deal of fun, especially against massive packs of mobs. As I started running higher level torment with my clan I eventually shifted to BH - Event Horizon for the utility it provides. I think of the 2, Event Horizon is far superior when you're "progressing", but that may be personal preference speaking.
The problem I found after I made the shift to Arcane Dynamo is that I had to be very careful about when I cast my Blackhole. At first I was burning my AD charges on BH every few rotations, which kind of defeated the purpose running AD in the first place. This is why I now run with Frost Nova now. Doesn't steal your AD stacks and has the added benefit of not interupting your AT channeling. It also allows you to really get in mobs faces, which you'll want to once you get your MLW. Of course on T5 or 6, this is almost tantamount to suicide, so I keep it as a more defensive utility spell nowadays.
With good mitigation, you could ignore ground effects up to T3 at the least, maybe even T4, after that the damage gets to be too much, especially on Arcane Sentries. Hope that MLW drops for ya soon, it's a fantastic addition to the build.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wise man once said: "The problem with common sense is that it's just not that common..."
METD (METD#1485 on Bnet)
Note: I am far from an expert with the Wizard and some other posters will have a MUCH deeper level of insight into the class. It's what I've been using at Torment 4, and could probably work well up to Torment 5 without major issue. Beyond that, I have little experience to draw upon and would just be making uninformed assumptions. Also, if you notice something is wrong or have a suggestion on improving the build, feel free to chime in with some constructive criticism.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACRONYMS
BUILD
GEARING
PLAYSTYLE
FOLLOWERS
PARAGON
TIPS AND TRICKS
CLOSING THOUGHTS
TL:DR
I'm calling this build "Torrent Overwhelming" (points if you get the reference, not a hard one to figure out though). Let me know what you think of the name. Now, let's get into it!
ACRONYMS
A short list of acronyms I use in this guide. most people won't need this, but it's here for those who aren't as familiar with the terminology many of us use!
AD - Arcane Dynamo
AP - Arcane Power
APoC - Arcane Power on Crit
APS - Attacks per Second
AS - Attack Speed
(Also known as IAS - Increased Attack Speed)
AT - Arcane Torrent
CDR - Cooldown Reduction
EA - Energy Armor
LoH - Life on Hit
LoK - Life on Kill
MW - Magic Weapon
OS - Open Socket
RCR - Resource Cost Reduction
SB - Spectral Blades
UW - Unwavering Will
BUILD
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WeQjSO!ZdST!ZcaYcc
Obviously, the core of the build is centered on Arcane Torrent. My goals here were to maximize damage by building around a fair amount of Arcane Power generation to increase channel times on AT. Secondary was building a great deal of defensive power to, once again, increase channel times on AT before having to move. By having the toughness AND sustain to "facetank" a great deal of content, we increase our effective DPS in many situations.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#.eQ.SO!SZd!....c
This is what I would consider the bare-bones of the build. Beyond this exists a great deal of flexibility based on personal preference and gearing.
LMB
Spectral Blade (Siphoning Blade) - The obvious choice for AP generation when you're running a little dry.
Spectral Blade (Barrier Blades) - Also a viable option if you favor a bit more defensive power over AP generation. The shield proc does stack with MW - Deflection making you very tanky when casting Spectral Blades.
Electrocute (Surge of Power) - The main drawback being it won't be increased by the % Arcane Damage you'll be stacking on your items. The range however I find very convenient. And breaking stuff is oh so easy! (Suggested for AD builds, since it casts very fast, allowing you to charge your 5 stacks quickly!)
NOTE: This guide provides a solid "starting point" for your Wizard. As you gear up and optimize your gear, you will find that, eventually, you are able to channel AT on a single target for long periods of time. At this point it is very much recommended to consider dropping your Signature spell altogether in favor of something that provides more damage, utility or defensive power (whatever you're in need of most). Good options here will vary tremendously, but once you've reached this point, you should have a solid grasp on your character and should be able to decide what to put here based on how you like to play.
NOTE2: It has been brought to my attention that Arcane Dynamo works with channeled spells once again. This makes it a solid passive for us and opens up an alternate gearing path as well. By keeping a signature spell in our build, we technically free up some AP generation since we can fall back on our sig when we run out. This opens up both gearing options (by dropping APoC or RCR for other defensive or offensive affixes) or build options (dropping Familiar - Arcanot for Sparkflint or another skill that would provide more survivability/damage/utility). Thanks to wuffiliate for pointing out my mistake here! The passives section has been updated to reflect this.
RMB
AT - Cascade is our go-to rune in most situations. It holds up very well against the Disruption rune in single target situations and is superior in AoE situations from my observations. This being said, if running in a party with another Wizard who uses Arcane spells, making a quick change to Disruption would be advised since the extra damage gained overall in this situation would be superior to Cascade. Just make sure to coordinate with your party members! Running 2 Disruptions runes does nothing for anyone.
Credit to Helycon for clarifying some details regarding the Cascade rune.
SKILL 1
I use Teleport - Safe Passage because it further reinforces the goal of being an immovable AT spamming machine while offering fantastic mobility when combined with Illusionist in difficult fights. Any other rune would work here however.
SKILL 2
Running Familiar - Arcanot is great for helping you with AP generation while you gear up toward some APoC. Once you feel comfortable dropping the 2 AP/sec this becomes a free skill. My personal favorite is Familiar - Sparkflint for more raw DPS but you could just as easily throw in any other spell. Be creative!
SKILL 3
Magic Weapon - Deflection is quite useful for tanking damage. It "scales" with mitigation, which is central to this setup, and offers some synergy with health generation (Loh, LoK, Life/sec). An alternative if you don't really need the extra survivability would be to go with MW - Conduit for more AP generation or any of the other Magic Weapon runes for some extra DPS.
SKILL 4
Energy Armor is nearly required for the huge increase in effective health (EHP) since we'll be taking a lot of hits. Running EA - Prismatic Armor offers ridiculous mitigation bonuses but if you want to squeeze out a bit of extra DPS, running EA - Pinpoint Barrier offers a good balance of damage, utility (with APoC) and mitigation.
For those with balls of steel (or stupid amounts of toughness), running Storm Armor - Power of the Storm makes holding a perma-channel AT very easy. however, the trade-off of DPS (which you will lose by gearing for more mitigation) for increased channel times is debatable at best I think.
Passives
Illusionist is mandatory (when running Teleport) because of the fantastic mobility it affords you in difficult situations.
Blur is just a huge boost of free mitigation, but with increasing gear levels you may be able to drop this for more utility or DPS oriented passives.
Unwavering Will is not mandatory but honestly is just WAY TOO GOOD to pass up. Seeing as AT is a channeled ability we will often be sitting in place for substantial amounts of time, in these cases, UW is just free mitigation AND damage. I don't know why anyone would considering taking anything else here.
The last passive is very flexible. Temporal Flux is a solid option because it offers a great deal of "invisible" mitigation (if that melee minion can't get in range to hit you, that's an effective 100% mitigation right there!). Other options include Astral Presence, Audacity, Arcane Dynamo or Elemental Exposure (if you can get 2+ different elemental sources of damage into your built, otherwise, it's not worth it for 5% dmg).
This being said, we also have the option of running Arcane Dynamo, which I would strongly suggest at this time. This means keeping a signature spell, and alters the way the build plays a bit, however the increase in damage is SUBSTANTIAL. The 60% bonus will persist for an entire *UNINTERUPTED* channel of AT, this means knockbacks/knockups/vortex pulls/running out of AP or releasing the channel button for even a second will see that bonus damage lost until you "charge" the proc again. I would highly recommend trying this passive first before considering other options.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
Survivability
Survivability is very important, especially for us since we want to tank to a reasonable extent. Gearing can be tricky for some because "toughness" on your character sheet can be quite misleading. Vitality "inflates" your toughness while not necessarily increasing your ability to survive by a relative amount. This is due to a variety of factors but the one we will take advantage of is how mitigation interacts with healing and our shields.
Because of this, we want to heavily focus on building mitigation, Armor and All Resists being the most common but stats such as "Reduce Damage From Melee/Ranged Attacks by x%" are useful as well. Vitality is still very important, but do not stack it. Keep a decent amount, but focus on All Res and Armor for survivability. Also keep in mind that the more mitigation you stack, the more valuable every point of Vitality becomes.
Note: The "Reduced Damage from Melee/Ranged" affix can roll as a secondary affix, which is tremendously important to remember! While it's unlikely you'll be able to reroll a secondary stat on many pieces of equipment you have, it's worth considering on items that you don't want to change any primary stats on.
Resource Management
APoC can only roll on Sources and Wizard Helms (our unique class items) and, since Patch 2.0, can only roll 3-4 APoC per item. This puts our maximum APoC with lvl 70 gear at 8. This means channeling AT on single targets indefinitely is now rather difficult to achieve, but not impossible. To compensate for this nerf, we now have access to a new stat; Resource Cost Reduction. This stat is fantastic. Idealy you will want both APoC and RCR.
Note: It is best to gear RCR on a few items, say 2 or 3, with higher rolls than to stack it everywhere in smaller amounts (so aim for max rolls on the items you pick it up on). This is because the stat does not stack additively with itself. Thus, every time you add more RCR, it becomes less effective. If you're interested in a more detailed explanation, post any questions you have here.
Life Sustain
We will be hit, A LOT, while playing this build. Therefore we need a way to restore lost health. We will find this with 3 different stats; Life on Hit (LoH), Life on Kill (LoK) and Life per Second (Life/sec). Ideally you will want a balance of all 3, but if you have to prioritize them I would go in this order; Life/sec > LoH > LoK. The reasoning for this is because our proc coefficient on AT isn't terribly high so LoH will not be as effective as it might be with other skills, and LoK does literally nothing for you in single target situations (usually boss fights, but champions with no/dead minions can also sometimes cause problems). This makes life/sec VERY consistent comparatively, especially in situations where you find yourself not casting spells, LoH does nothing for you then (ex: while frozen, or kiting).
One very important note to make however is that Life/sec and LoH are both primary stats while LoK is a secondary stat. This makes LoK very efficient in gear because it never detracts from potential damage affixes and the only defensive affixes it could replace would be the single resistance rolls and the Reduced Damage from Melee/Ranged affix. Rolling 2 of any of these on an item's secondary affixes is fantastic for mitigation/sustain.
Also consider how all this sustain synergizes with our mitigation. The more mitigation we have, the more value our sustain and shields have! This works extremely well with our MW - Deflection shield (and SB - Barrier Blades if you're running it as well). The less damage you take per attack (from a % point of view), the greater % of your effective health every 1 healing/shield provides. You can brush up on the specifics by looking up up more mechanically oriented posts. I highly recommend this thread; http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8770117237 . While very technical, everything is well explained and this can be a great source of fundamental knowledge for not only the Wizard class but every other class as well.
Damage
The most strait-forward way to increase your damage is through Critical hits. Thus we want a great deal of Crit Chance. And since we're focusing on a fair amount of Crit Chance, stacking some Crit Damage is a no brainer. Too much of one and the other becomes less effective so keeping a healthy ratio of Crit Chance to Crit Damage is crucial. Most people recommend a 10:1 ratio of Crit Damage: Crit Chance (ex: if you have 400% Crit Damage, try to have at least 40% crit chance). Also, we wants TONS of Intelligence (note that every 10int gives you 1all res too! Therefore, Int increases your damage substantially as well as adding a respectable amount of mitigation) so get this affix on EVERY SINGLE ITEM!
The most important (and largest) upgrade you should always be looking for is a high DPS 1hand weapon with an open socket and lots of Intelligence. The socket should have the highest quality Emerald you can get put into it. Bonus points for finding a weapon with some nice Resource Cost Reduction on it! The speed of the weapon should also be considered. The faster you attack, the more quickly you will drain your AP. A wand is great because it can roll +max AP as a secondary affix, but does come with a base 1.4 APS. An axe or even a hammer would be very useful if you're still struggling with AP generation. But in the end, use the highest DPS weapon available, within reason at least.
This brings me to an important point about Attack Speed. We avoid it for the most part. AS is great for average DPS, but it does increase the rate at which we use up AP while channeling AT. It does help AP generation with our Signature spell, but overall I would pass on the stat in most cases. Do not discount an item just because it has AS on it, but I would lend more weight to Crit Chance, Crit Damage or other DPS stats. The more passive AP generation you have however, the more AS you can safely use without taxing your AP usage too much.
Finally, ALWAYS try to fit the following stats on your gear whenever possible; "Increase Arcane Damage by x%" and "Increase Arcane Torrent Damage by x%". These stats DO NOT show up on your character sheet's damage. This makes the Damage display somewhat deceptive (just like Toughness... seeing a trend here?). These stats stack multiplicatively with themselves as well as each other. This means that every time you get another one, the total increase is greater than the sum of its parts. (Ex: 15% and 20% = 38%, not the 35% you would expect). These are such a massive increase in effective damage compared to EVERY other stat that you want as much of these as you can manage.
Note: The Increased Arcane Damage affix can roll on bracers and amulets while Increased Arcane Torrent Damage can roll on helms, boots and sources. Some legendary items can have these affixes despite not belonging to these categories but I won't be listing those here.
ITEMS
Wondering where you should get which stats? Here's a rough guideline:
Helm: Focus on offensive stats here. Intelligence, Crit Chance, APoC and Increase Arcane Torrent Damage are what you're looking for. A good place to put some Vitality if you don't need the APoC. A socket can work as well for the %Life increase, but only if you can't find something better.
Shoulders: Primarily a defensive item. Intelligence, Vitality, Armor, All Resist are all great here. Can roll some nice Resource Cost Reduction which I would highly recommend trying to roll here.
Chest: Mostly defensive, but rolling 3sockets is almost a must, the amount of All Resist or Intelligence you can put in here is awesome. Other than the sockets, Intelligence, Armor All Resist will be what you want here.
Belt: Primarily defensive item. Intelligence, Armor, All Resist and a good roll of Life/sec would be ideal, if not, more Vitality.
Pants: Mostly defensive again. Rolling 2 sockets is ideal, other stats should be Intelligence, Vitality, Armor, All Resist or Life/sec.
Boots: Defensive item. Intelligence, Armor, All Resist, Increased Arcane Torrent Damage. Squeezing in Movement Speed here is very nice for clear speed if you don't have Paragon lvl 200 to max it there. Some Life/sec would work as well.
Gloves: One of your biggest sources of raw damage. Intelligence, Crit Chance, Crit Damage are pretty much mandatory here. If you're lucky enough to roll a trifecta (by getting Attack Speed) and can handle the increased AP usage, fantastic! Otherwise, look for some more Armor, All Resist or Vitality.
Bracers: A mostly offensive item. Increased Arcane Damage, Crit Chance and Intelligence are a must here. Last affix can be any of the standard defensive rolls (Vitality, Armor, All Resist, Life/sec).
Jewelry: The bulk of your offensive power comes from these 3 items. You're looking for the same thing on all three, for the most part.The only exception is that you want Increased Arcane Damage on your amulet (it can't roll on rings). Affixes to look for include; Intelligence, Crit Chance, Crit Damage and +damage (ex: +21-58 damage).
Source: Another large source of damage. A high +damage range is ideal, for obvious reasons. Intelligence, Crit Chance, APoC and Increased Arcane Torrent Damage are the most important affixes to look for. Getting a high roll of Increased Max Arcane Power on one of the secondaries is quite nice too, but not required.
Weapon: As mentioned earlier, you want the highest DPS weapon possible! The base damage of the weapon is what is multiplied by all our offensive stats, so the higher the damage, the more "effective" all our other affixes are. A socket is mandatory here, the massive Crit Damage you'll get from socketing an Emerald is very powerful. Intelligence is nearly mandatory. A nice roll of Resource Cost Reduction can be quite nice, though it will likely come at the expense of some offensive power. Anything else is less than ideal, but if you're really in need of Life on Hit, weapons can roll this affix in large amounts. Also, if you're lucky, getting a Life on Kill affix for one of your secondaries is fantastic here, seeing as (I believe) weapons can roll this affix in amounts that are MUCH larger than any other item.
Update: The % damage affix was recently fixed so that it now properly applies to elemental damage rolled on weapons. This makes it a great affix to roll on your weapon, should you be lucky enough to either get it or an open socket, allowing you to reroll for it. I would value this stat as 3rd in priority (Intelligence and the open socket being more valuable), even above RCR.
Legendaries with unique effects are highly sought after. Finding a specific legendary however can be ridiculously time consuming (and many will never find some legendaries at all) so if you're lucky enough to find something useful, try to alter your build after the unique effect as much as is reasonable.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
How does the build play? It's quite simple really, you run around looking for large groups of mobs (gathering up a few smaller groups works well too) and, once you have a nicely clumped up group, plant your feet into the group and start channeling Arcane Torrent into the largest "cluster" of mobs. Move your cursor and things start dying everywhere! I generally don't waste time focusing single target white mobs with AT unless they're one of those "beefy" mobs that tend to be able to knock you back (resetting Unwavering Will). Whenever possible, just kite the mob into another pack and focus it down then. This keeps our clear speed more efficient by making the most use of our AoE damage and having to stand still for 1.5secs to enable UW.
Now, just because we build somewhat tanky and use UW does not mean you become an immovable object in all situations. This is most important when facing Elite or Champion packs (or some bosses as well) that have potent (or several) ground targeted effects. NEVER EVER EVER stand in a Frozen "bomb". The second or 2 you lose control of your character is enough to get you killed very quickly. This is because you can't run or pop a health potion until the freeze effect dissipates. What amplifies the danger is that you are no longer casting and therefore not procing your Deflection stacks. This is DANGEROUS, you have been warned.
Teleport is a fantastic tool for avoiding ground effects, but be smart about when you use it. Teleporting to avoid an Arcane Lazor when the Elites also have the Frozen affix can be perilous. You may find yourself with Teleport on cooldown and Frozen bombs all around you with no way to avoid the inevitable freeze. Other ground effects are not as mortally threatening but standing in a Desecrator or Poison pool increases the damage you take by a fair bit. Arcane Lazorz do a great deal of damage but are usually fairly easy to avoid (Unless you run into a Horde Champion who's minions have the Arcane Enchanted affix. Those are a NIGHTMARE to deal with, LAZORZ EVERYWHERE!!!) Ultimately, you need to get familiar with your own survivability to know when you can take the extra damage and when doing so would be dangerous.
Take care when out of AP and using your signature spell, your overall survivability may temporarily lower until you get back to channeling AT (unless running SB-BB, then your survivability INCREASES for the most part).
Also, when not dealing with nasty affixes, do not hesitate to use Teleport - Safe Passage as extra mitigation or to create distance to kite with if necessary. And sometimes, it is necessary to kite particularly nasty packs. I cannot stress this enough; just because we run UW does not mean we just sit in one place and take a ton of damage. Re-activating the passive is fairly quick after some careful repositioning.
FOLLWERS (Solo only)
Followers have received a fairly nice buff at level 70 (and with Loot 2.0 in general). This is because items roll massive amounts of main stats compared to pre-2.0, especially at lvl 70. In case some of you are not aware, followers QUADRUPLE the main stats on their items. This is HUGE when you consider that some 2-handers can roll over 900 to any given stat (that's 2800 int for your enchantress on her weapon alone!) Gearing followers is fairly simple then; get as much Vitality and their main stat as possible on their items. Mitigation is great too, but they can get such ridiculous health pools now that mitigation is only truly important in higher torment levels.
Each follower has their own advantages/disadvantages and choosing which one you want to run with is purely up to personal preference. For this reason I won't post any follower "builds", it's so easy to change them up that anyone can alter their abilities on the fly to find out what works best for their setup.
Templar: If you need a tank, Kormac's your man. Able to equip a shield and taunt enemies means that choosing the Templar offers some substantial defensive perks. But he also offers some nice utility as well! For those who want more AP generation, his 4th set of abilities has a passive that adds 1.4 AP/sec to your Wizard. He can also provide a massive increase in Life/sec (just shy of 5000hp/sec) passively. His heals are now massive and unless you stack some serious Vitality, will likely heal you for anywhere between 50% and 100% of your life! This makes for some pretty clutch moments. Overall, the Templar is your defensive option when choosing followers and is particularly useful in the early stages of gearing once you hit 70.
Scoundrel: Lyndon is hands down the funniest follower to have around. The witty conversations you'll overhear between he and your Wizard are reason enough to choose him as your follower as you play through the campaign. Not so much in adventure mode, however. The scoundrel provides almost exclusively one thing: damage, lots of it. He can also passively add some Crit Chance to your character or a small damage buff when you crit, increasing your DPS as well! He can provide some basic utility as well; a slow, a blind and a short stun, should you choose to allocate those skills. One slight detriment to using the scoundrel is that we CAN equip bows, meaning that 80% of bows you find will have Intelligence on them because of the Smart Loot system. Having a monk or Demon hunter craft a bow or crossbow for him is easy enough however.
Enchantress: Much like the Scoundrel, Eirena provides mostly damage during your travels. I find her utility to be slightly superior than the Scoundrel's, but this comes at the cost of good bit of her damage potential. The scoundrel's damage potential when skilling for more utility doesn't drop off as much as it does here. Her passives add either a small armor buff or reduced ranged damage and if you choose to pass on her utility you can also gain a passive 3% AS buff. Seeing as we don't want too much AS, I find this passive to be a bit weaker than the scoundrel's Crit Chance. I do find, however, that stacking damage on the enchantress to be the easiest amongst the followers, especially since we'll be seeing lots of high Intelligence 2-handers.
One last thing I would like to mention is a very cool setup you can use with the Enchantress should you be lucky enough to find an Azurewrath ( http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/azurewrath ). The Enchantress CAN equip 1hand weapons, but she does not gain the ability to wield a shield when she does so. The build revolves around Azurewrath's high Chance to Freeze. By equiping her with high amounts of AS and (ideally) an Amulet with Chance to Freeze as well, she becomes a monster at controlling enemies. Erosion is the only required skill with this setup. She will lay down an Erosion pool that ticks incredibly fast thanks to the AS on her rings and amulet and this will cause almost instant freezing to every mob that crosses into the pool. I used this setup with my WotB Barb last year and it was tremendously fun.
Also, keep en eye out for the lvl 61+ Legendary tokens (the follower unique items), there's two for each follower and the legendary effect on the first set of these is that it unlocks ALL the follower's skills at once. The other makes it so your follower cannot die. Quite powerful effects, should you be lucky enough to find one of these:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/smoking-thurible
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/hand-of-the-prophet
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/ribald-etchings
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/skeleton-key
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/enchanting-favor
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/relic-of-akarat
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
My thoughts on Paragon Point allocation.
Core
Your points in core will be very strait-forward. Max out Movement speed first. This helps in clear speed which means more loot! Once maxed, it also frees up an affix on your boots. After that dump everything into Intelligence. Vitality could be considered if you're running very low on it on your gearset but I would advise against it. Max Arcane Power could have some niche applications, but overall, more DPS is preferred.
Offense
Critical Hit Damage <---> Critical Hit Chance > Attack Speed > Cooldown Reduction
I believe that in MOST cases, Crit Damage will provide a larger increase in damage than Crit Chance will, but this is highly dependent on your gear. Attack Speed comes 3rd because, despite us not wanting large amounts of it, it is still better than CDR (only skill with a Cooldown that we run is Teleport and Illusionist takes care of refreshing it during fights, this makes CDR nearly useless for this build unless you sub in another skill in one of the optional slots, then you could consider taking it 3rd).
Defense
Resist All <---> Armor > Life Regeneration > Life
This will depend a great deal on which affixes you rolled on your gear. Keep in mind that Armor is a % increase while the All Resist is a flat value. This means that if you have tons of armor rolls on your gear, Armor may provide a greater increase in survivability than Resist All. Life Regeneration is worth considering if you have a serious lack of sustain on your gear, but otherwise, max it 3rd. Life is last because we are not stacking Vitality, making returns on Life % meager at best.
Utility
Probably our most flexible points to allocate, thus I wont give a priority order here (though in most cases you'll want to max out Gold Find last). I usually run Resource Cost Reduction to help with AT channeling, but if you're fine on AP generation Life on Hit offers some nice sustain and Area Damage is nice for clearing out crowds of mobs (note: it will have no effect in single target situations, thus I would lean towards maxing it 3rd rather than 2nd).
Generally, you'll want to tailor your paragon point allocation based on what you're lacking most on your gear. This section in particular is based on personal preferences, but other factors will influence how you build here (ex: farming normal will have different priorities compared to progressing in Torment). Everything can easily be switched on the fly, so try out lots of different combinations till you find something that works for you!
TIPS AND TRICKS!
Feel free to suggest other ideas!
CLOSING THOUGHTS
I do not claim that this build is "mine" in any way. I'm sure many others are running very similar or even identical builds out there. I just wanted to share what I've been using and explain my thoughts and ideas on how I got here. I did not model this build after anyone else's, it was of my own creation. I simply used various bits of information from a large amalgamation of different posts to create it. Jaetch's thread on how to create a build ( http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/11882388578 ) and apo's thread on mechanics ( http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8770117237 ) were both instrumental in this process, so major props to both of them for their fantastic work! Also would like to thank Hope for his/her thread ( http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/11985118574 ). The list of different builds out there is great for those who want to find something fun to play, but mostly the section on Elemental Damage/Skill damage affixes was very helpful when I first hit 70. There's also a massive section on all the different Legendaries we can use and their unique effects. If you're curious, definitely go check it out!
If you've gotten this far, then thank you for reading! My hope is that you've either learned even a little bit about this build (or the Wizard class in general) and, hopefully, will find some enjoyment in trying out this build! I look forward to the discussion to follow and hope that you'll all feel welcome to join in or even ask questions. Remember, no question is a stupid question! Well, MOST questions aren't anyway... I guess all that's left is:
Happy loot hunting everyone!
TL:DR
Use the following build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WeQjSO!ZdST!ZcaYcc
Build lots of mitigation (All Res, Armor, %dmg reduced etc...) with enough vitality to survive bursts of damage (not too much however, 200k health is plenty, could even get away with less in some situations). Some health/sec and Health on Kill is very nice too!
Focus on Crit/Crit Dmg/Int to increase your sheet damage and get Increased Arcane torrent Damage % on boots, helm and, if possible, source. Increased Arcane Damage on bracers and amulet.
Get some APoC and Resource Cost Reduced to help maintain long channeling times.
Sit in place and cast Arcane Torrent on large packs of mobs. AT will proc deflection stacks that are much stronger because of all that mitigation we built for, letting you "tank" a good deal of stuff, meaning you get to cast AT even longer before having to break the channel in order to move away. Don't facetank Arcane Sentries or Frozen bombs unless you're 120% sure you can handle it, and even then, avoiding the damage is a good habit to get into. The other ground effects are less dangerous, so use your own judgment.
Go out there, farm away and hopefully get a few epic drops! For more details on where to go from here, read the rest of the guide
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
Seeing lots of views, would love it if you guys would share your thoughts/criticisms on the guide!
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
So this does offer an alternate path towards "late-game" gearing. Instead of aiming for enough AP generation to drop your sig spell, you could use Arcane Dynamo and keep it, freeing up affixes such APoC and RCR on your gear since you can use a sig spell to regenerate AP when you run out. And with AD you'll want to pop off 5 sigs in between channels for that 60% buff anyway! Thanks for bringing this to my attention, will update the signature spell section accordingly.
I really appreciate your feedback wuffiliate, thank you!
Swordsman83, sorry I'm a noob >.> but I'm very glad you asked!
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
I didn't realize the whole Arcane Dynamo thing was a bug, apparently I was not paying close enough attention when I read the patch 2.0.4 notes. /facepalm
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
Transitioning from one element to another can be rather troublesome, especially if you're well geared in the first place. I would suggest using rares first to see if you like the playstyle before you invest too heavily in it. If you like it, then gearing is mostly a question of time (and a little luck). Either way, hope your switch goes as smoothly as it can!
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
Added an Acronyms section at the beginning of the guide for those who might not be as familiar with the ones I use in the guide.
Expanded on the use of Arcane Dynamo in a few sections of the guide.
Updated the weapon section to note the bug fix to the % damage affix and to properly reflect its new value in comparison to other affixes.
Made a few minor changes in regards to the 2.0.5 patch, nothing major has changed however.
FINALLY gave the build a NAME! Lemme know what you all think of it, it's not the catchiest name but it's a start.
Added more tips in the Tips and Tricks section.
Fixing more spelling errors and so on...
Annnnnnd that's all for now! As usual, feel free to comment/ask questions, I welcome the discussion!
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126
Noteworthy items:
Ess of Johann for "Vortex" on my enchantress;
Cord of Sherma for AoE Blind/Slow making enemies hit you less;
Oculus for less dmg from elites.
Until T2 you can basically ignore every ground effect and just spam your skills.
Still waiting for https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/moonlight-ward to drop.
1:https://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/fael-2684/hero/35710557
The problem I found after I made the shift to Arcane Dynamo is that I had to be very careful about when I cast my Blackhole. At first I was burning my AD charges on BH every few rotations, which kind of defeated the purpose running AD in the first place. This is why I now run with Frost Nova now. Doesn't steal your AD stacks and has the added benefit of not interupting your AT channeling. It also allows you to really get in mobs faces, which you'll want to once you get your MLW. Of course on T5 or 6, this is almost tantamount to suicide, so I keep it as a more defensive utility spell nowadays.
With good mitigation, you could ignore ground effects up to T3 at the least, maybe even T4, after that the damage gets to be too much, especially on Arcane Sentries. Hope that MLW drops for ya soon, it's a fantastic addition to the build.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/METD-1485/hero/1750126