I've been running a cold wizard for a long time now and have no problems doing T6 Rifts, Ubers, etc but I'd like to try and fine tune my build to be the best it can be and push into higher greater rifts. Profile is below:
I'm mostly looking for skill advice as I've been experimenting with Ray of Frost-Sleet Storm + Winters Flurry vs. Ray of Frost-Snow Blast + Light of Grace and can't figure out which is a better choice over all to use with Rimeheart. I've also been trying out Slow Time's various runes vs Teleport and can't decide if the added defense and dmg from Slow Time is worth the loss of mobility of Teleport. Any advice from experienced players? Some specific questions:
What is the proc rate on Sleet Storm vs Snow Blast? Which ends up being better for the proc on Rimeheart?
Slow Time - 10% atk speed or 10% dmg? I've been running the 10% atk speed since it doesnt require the mobs to actually be IN the bubble to add dmg, but is it less efficient? Point of No Return is also a nice option, but with all the freezing im doing I'm not sure the extra stun is worth it.
Hey Sasquatch, Just a few questions to better direct peoples feedback.
What's holding you back right now? Are you dying too much and therefore not being able to finish rifts? Or is it that you aren't killing things fast enough? Depending on whats going on there might be different things to change.
Also, are you sure you want to stick with Ray of Frost as your main damage dealer? Or do you want to try and spec more towards triggering the Rimeheart proc?
But as for direct feedback, I'd say as soon as possible find a ring that you can socket a Bane of the Trapped gem into. 15% Damage boost to CC'd (frozen) enemies.
I would say it's more that I can't kill fast enough to get beyond Greater Rift 25 or so solo. But the best way I can increase dmg is to lose defensive skills which just gives me the opposite problem. It's getting hard to balance the two. =)
As for RoF, I'd like to keep it as my main skill, i just plain enjoy using it, though I have thought about a magic missile/blizzard version that might allow me to proc Rimeheart more...
And yeah, I've been upgrading a Bane of the Trapped but just have not found a good SoJ or RoRG to socket it into yet.
Thanks for the advice. The Hydra not proccing FB is something I did not know about, and it makes me a little sad.
Anyway, I actually ended up testing out Rimeheart vs Azurewrath for Ray of Frost DPS and with generally equal weapons (Azurewrath gave me 1.4% more sheet dps) Rimeheart came out on top almost every time. I won't go into details, unless you want, but i tested against Ghom since he is a nice stationary target I can stand in front of and just channel indefinitely. Azurewrath kills were all between 25-30 seconds while Rimeheart was anywhere from as low as 17 seconds to as high as 30 seconds, averaging right around 22-24. Now when you add in other skills like Hydra, blizzard, etc, the extra cold dmg from Azurewrath might make it come out on top, but I'm not sure how to test it well when adding in so many variables.
I ended up changing some gear around and removing teleport/timestop and adding in Blizzard - Frozen Solid and was able to easily get to G-Rift 27, I probably could of completed it had i not gotten such a low density rift, but it would of been down to the wire due to DPS.
Also, i tried out magic missile-glacial spike (with a mirrorball of course), and it is terrible compared to Ray of Frost, since it does not pierce. Even if Rimeheart procs 3x as much it still would not be worth using over RoF.
I use to run with a Serpent Sparker, and the dual freezing hydras are nice if you make sure to cast them about 3 seconds apart to stagger the frost novas, but i got tired of counting to 3 every time i cast Hydra and really wanted to incorporate Rimeheart as well. I may try it again and see how far i make it on a Grift. I'm up to Grift 28 now with my current build, pretty sure I could get to 29 as well with my goal being to hit Grift lvl 30. I don't think a pure cold build would be very viable after that just due to DPS, looks like only FIrebirds and Mammoth Hydras can go much further. Though if anyone has a pure cold build and can break Grift lvl 30, I'd love to see it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Sasquatch-1433/hero/3697344
I'm mostly looking for skill advice as I've been experimenting with Ray of Frost-Sleet Storm + Winters Flurry vs. Ray of Frost-Snow Blast + Light of Grace and can't figure out which is a better choice over all to use with Rimeheart. I've also been trying out Slow Time's various runes vs Teleport and can't decide if the added defense and dmg from Slow Time is worth the loss of mobility of Teleport. Any advice from experienced players? Some specific questions:
What is the proc rate on Sleet Storm vs Snow Blast? Which ends up being better for the proc on Rimeheart?
Slow Time - 10% atk speed or 10% dmg? I've been running the 10% atk speed since it doesnt require the mobs to actually be IN the bubble to add dmg, but is it less efficient? Point of No Return is also a nice option, but with all the freezing im doing I'm not sure the extra stun is worth it.
Thanks!
What's holding you back right now? Are you dying too much and therefore not being able to finish rifts? Or is it that you aren't killing things fast enough? Depending on whats going on there might be different things to change.
Also, are you sure you want to stick with Ray of Frost as your main damage dealer? Or do you want to try and spec more towards triggering the Rimeheart proc?
But as for direct feedback, I'd say as soon as possible find a ring that you can socket a Bane of the Trapped gem into. 15% Damage boost to CC'd (frozen) enemies.
As for RoF, I'd like to keep it as my main skill, i just plain enjoy using it, though I have thought about a magic missile/blizzard version that might allow me to proc Rimeheart more...
And yeah, I've been upgrading a Bane of the Trapped but just have not found a good SoJ or RoRG to socket it into yet.
Anyway, I actually ended up testing out Rimeheart vs Azurewrath for Ray of Frost DPS and with generally equal weapons (Azurewrath gave me 1.4% more sheet dps) Rimeheart came out on top almost every time. I won't go into details, unless you want, but i tested against Ghom since he is a nice stationary target I can stand in front of and just channel indefinitely. Azurewrath kills were all between 25-30 seconds while Rimeheart was anywhere from as low as 17 seconds to as high as 30 seconds, averaging right around 22-24. Now when you add in other skills like Hydra, blizzard, etc, the extra cold dmg from Azurewrath might make it come out on top, but I'm not sure how to test it well when adding in so many variables.
I ended up changing some gear around and removing teleport/timestop and adding in Blizzard - Frozen Solid and was able to easily get to G-Rift 27, I probably could of completed it had i not gotten such a low density rift, but it would of been down to the wire due to DPS.
Also, i tried out magic missile-glacial spike (with a mirrorball of course), and it is terrible compared to Ray of Frost, since it does not pierce. Even if Rimeheart procs 3x as much it still would not be worth using over RoF.