eu.battle (dot ) net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#UlXiPf!Wfh!cbYYYY - remove (dot) and add a . Stupid thing wont lemme do links unless I have stupid 10 posts lol.
I hope I linked that right.
Anyway my name is Vasarto and I am an ice wizard and hope to become the greatest frozen spell master of them all someday!
Here I am to share my thoughts of what I discovered so far and how different my tactics are and get questions and comments from you so that I may become an even better spell caster and survive in inferno fighting off the forces of hell even longer. Although I am still new to the game I have discovered much so lets begin!
Primary - Lets start with that left mouse button primary power. I noticed a major failing of many other wizards is that many do not even use primary skills. I see this as a fault as having a powerful spell to be cast for free is essential because...lets face it. No matter HOW powerful you are or how fast you regenerate your arcane power. YOU RUN OUT...100% of the time..All the time..every time...You ran out like 3 seconds ago while reading this I swear and promise you did. So do not lie about it. lol.
ok so now that is out of the way. its just logical that you need a good one. For the longest time I was using spectral blades. I found healing blades to be somewhat useful but then I found electrocute.
Electrocute with the rune arch lightning. Because let's face it. With the other skills in this list. If you are resorting to your primary or just wanna get up close then arch lightning electrocute is your best chance. It has high damage. Its fast if you are a one hand weapon wizard build and you never move from your spot ever.
Its a fan based attack so it has a wide area of reach around you and has good enemy catch overall. I found that it is also fun to use as well and looks really neat. If there was a ice primary that would had replaced this. But also the lightning damage gives an extra element just in case you run into any frozen monsters whom are resistent to ice type damage.
Secondary Skill - I replaced the secondary skill with Blizzard. I find that snowbound is quite useful because I spam blizzard a lot and especially over large groups of enemies and wanted a way to preserve my arcane for other spells further down.
Defensive - I find that like many others diamond skin is a god send. But my opinion of what rune to use differs. Many claim that the rune that expands your damage taken is best. I claim that a longer lasting skin is better because I often get caught in huge groups of little guys and having more time to run the heck away and hit that healing button or get away in general is much better than just being able to take one really large hit from a single guy. Pluse teleport is annoying and I just really freaking hate it like something bad. I think its the worst skill in the game for wizards next to magic missile which is boring. Does not hit wide area of enemies like I want it too and its not ice or lightning.
force - For the force spell slot I have meteor with comet rune. This makes meteor ice typed and quite powerful. It is a must have for any ice wizard and you would be a fool to go without it because for ice damage it hits for the most easily.
Conjeration - For the conjeration slot I put in ice armor. Not just because its ice but because I believe Energy armor is just inferior. Ice armor blocks for as much damage AND it freezes your enemies giving you time to run away and in multiplayer when you see diablo stop moving for two whole seconds. It means the difference between winning and TPK.
For passive skills I have been using Cold blooded, galvanizing ward and unstable anatomy. I find them somewhat useful but somehow I think I could do better.
for items I am slowly moving my way to full tal rasha set but without the off hand item. Plus a hell fire ring and Skorn as my weapon. I have picked up lots of items that are Really high in five main things
Magic Find
Vit or life %
Int
Resistence to all elements usually between 30-50 is what I got right now per item almost.
and items that give to a little extra armor but that is the least of them.
Battle tactics is usually to cast blizzard and a hydra and run away. Usually this works very well if I am in groups. I have ice armor on and run up and zap things moderatly with arch lightning to help clear out large groups of foes. and diamond skin in case something goes wrong or when I want to charge purposely into large groups. When I see clusters of enemies or speicials I use meteor often.
Boss fights usually means I get up in diablos or who evers face with ice armor. Zap em, Diamond skin myself half way of loosing my health. While all this is going on my hydra is shooting at them and blizzard is usually just worn off and I run off and heal. Most of the time boss or the enemies get frozen allowing my team mates free hits, me time to go heal and re cast my frost hydra and blzzard on him again a few times and than run back up and zap and freeze them some more.
So there we go. I will leave this open for comments and suggestions on how to improve
Primary - Lets start with that left mouse button primary power. I noticed a major failing of many other wizards is that many do not even use primary skills. I see this as a fault as having a powerful spell to be cast for free is essential because...lets face it. No matter HOW powerful you are or how fast you regenerate your arcane power. YOU RUN OUT...100% of the time..All the time..every time...You ran out like 3 seconds ago while reading this I swear and promise you did. So do not lie about it. lol.
Okay, I can't lie: I ran out of AP once or twice on my last run, you're right.
But running out of arcane power itself is not the problem, it's the consequences... which can be avoided as long as you full up again on AP within milliseconds.
So it's fair to say I never DIE to running out of AP, at that's the reason why people don't use signature skills. With 19 APoC using CM/WW build I never die to running out of arcane power, and never bottom out for more than literally a split second. And I don't even use a wizard helm with APoC, if I was ever having issues there's plenty more of the stat that I could pick up.
If you are running out of AP you should look into just getting some APoC instead of completely changing your build around it... my opinion anyway.
I think you would be better off adapting a CM WW build to suit your frozen style. Having a little Arcane power on Crit (APoC 9-18) and running Energy Twister - Wicked Wind will let you keep your arcane power full for all of your other frozen spells. You missed the most obvious one of course (Frost Nova) which will keep enemies in place for your Energy twisters and other frozen spells. You should be able to get rid of Terrible Unstable Anomaly (they left the Terrible off the name for some reason) once you are freezing your enemies all the time (look into Critical Mass, really)
Not gonna write a real long explanation why this build isnt the greatest, I will just point out the obvious mistake in your theory of this design.
CM Wiz do not go out of AP like you think. And it is not very expensive to run the build, or a comparable build, that maintains mana.
There are budget guides for CM that work great, or you can use Living Lightning instead of WW and you can skip APOC which makes it cheaper to gear......and costs 0 AP to run.
I'm not talking about you personally (because you didn't do what I'm about to say), but it sometimes annoys me how people just dump all over a build just because it's not THE MOST efficient, forgetting that this is a game, and games are about having fun.
So much this. I mean, I think everyone wants some efficiency, but for some, there comes a point where having fun becomes more important than whether you're getting enough EXP per hour or whatever.
I'm also running an ice wizard. Melee ice wizard. I know this suggestion will make me look crazy, but you should get some Frostburn Gauntlets. I know a lot of people say their crap because they don't do jack to your paper DPS, and I was skeptical at first, but since a perfectly rolled pair was only 70k on the AH, I gave it a try, and WOW. If you're main damage is ice, these give you a serious boost. For an ice wizard, it's basically a flat 30 percent boost to your DPS. Nothing short of trifecta gloves will get you that kind of boost in damage. Sure, the rest of the stats on it are garbage (pick up radius is always nice though!) but seriously, pick em' up cheap, and see what you think.
I can't comment much on your build. or rather I don't feel the need to, but I've been using Chilling Aura, and it's great for packs of fast enemies, really makes getting swarmed more bearable, especially with the recent buffs to CC. This could be valuable for you, since it could give you a chance to get away and continue kiting or whatever.
I'm not talking about you personally (because you didn't do what I'm about to say), but it sometimes annoys me how people just dump all over a build just because it's not THE MOST efficient, forgetting that this is a game, and games are about having fun.
+1. If people ask for efficiency, I'll tell them the usual story of MP0 Archon blabla, but when I'm back from vacation in a few weeks I'll certainly try something new. It's a game, and not my job, I don't care about efficiency, I just want fun.
Trust me, those of us who find EFFICIENCY FUN hate your posts as much as you hate ours. I guarantee that changing a couple abilities over (2 active, one passive) and buying one piece of APoC gear will not only make your more efficient, but you will also have MOAR FUN! doing your stupid inefficient (but packed full of flavor!) frost build.
No one who posts about efficiency is trying to ruin your fun, they are just trying to help. If you sit there and wish you could kill better stuff or have more fun messing around with different builds that require you to throw away 5M on a set of gear you might not ever use again but can't because you don't have 5M to waste, that's why we are here
Just to nitpick, this post was not listed as "for fun" anywhere in the thread title or the original post. It wasn't mentioned until post 4 and not even by the OP... if you don't want feedback or suggestions for improvement on your build, why post here in the first place?
No one was bashing the OP anyway. People were telling him his build isnt that good. We are entitled to that opinion.
More specifically, most people were telling him he made a false statement. He declared:
"No matter HOW powerful you are or how fast you regenerate your arcane power. YOU RUN OUT...100% of the time..All the time..every time...You ran out like 3 seconds ago while reading this I swear and promise you did. So do not lie about it. lol."
So clearly he was misinformed, and since this is a forum for Wizards, with a lot of Wizards that know this statement is false, people tried to tell him he is wrong. And almost all of them suggested better options. In fact, JK gave him very specific help on making his "ice wizard" build.
You can get mad about it if you want, but if you come to an open forum, post false statements, talk about how effective your new build is, expect some people might disagree. This is true even if he was 100% correct, because at the end of the day, everyone has there own opinion. You are not adding anything to the discussion or making things better by getting on here and bashing everyone who had a differing opinion, and expressed it. Especially when not a single post in here was rude or mean towards the OP.........
EDIT: Also just wanted to point out, this thread was actually pretty constructive until you 2 came along causing drama. reread the replies closely, look at where the thread derailed. It wasnt JK, me or any other wizard trying to help the OP.
@Litheum: Actually, when re-reading all the replies, I disagree with what you said. Especially Ignatius gave a lot of interesting insight from a Blizzard wizard point of view, and what Maka said was just plain right.
This build is really really interesting. It's certainly not very fast as it's a deviation of the original kiting builds. I like this and I would prefer someone would try to change it a little bit but still maintain the original idea instead of turning this into another CMWW spec.
Anyways, regarding the AP discussion that emerged: I played around with a Disintegrate build recently and figured that if you get a Stone of Jordan (or other legendary) with AP cost reduction for a specific spell, use Astral Presence and the 4 set piece bonus of Tal Rasha (just buy the cheapest 4 you can find, they're still good enough for playing around a bit) - you won't have any AP problems. You don't need APoC/CMWW, there are other ways to maintain builds that seem to be AP-heavy on first glance. As soon as you fall back on APoC, you also need CM, and then you also need WW, and... in the end you're just one in a million and your unique build idea is gone. And this would be a shame. Keep on trying!
@Litheum: Actually, when re-reading all the replies, I disagree with what you said. Especially Ignatius gave a lot of interesting insight from a Blizzard wizard point of view, and what Maka said was just plain right.
This build is really really interesting. It's certainly not very fast as it's a deviation of the original kiting builds. I like this and I would prefer someone would try to change it a little bit but still maintain the original idea instead of turning this into another CMWW spec.
Anyways, regarding the AP discussion that emerged: I played around with a Disintegrate build recently and figured that if you get a Stone of Jordan (or other legendary) with AP cost reduction for a specific spell, use Astral Presence and the 4 set piece bonus of Tal Rasha (just buy the cheapest 4 you can find, they're still good enough for playing around a bit) - you won't have any AP problems. You don't need APoC/CMWW, there are other ways to maintain builds that seem to be AP-heavy on first glance. As soon as you fall back on APoC, you also need CM, and then you also need WW, and... in the end you're just one in a million and your unique build idea is gone. And this would be a shame. Keep on trying!
The build Ive been using up until about 3 days ago required no APOC.
I also agree there are other builds that work without APOC, but I have not found any builds that give the versatility of spammable teleport, Time Warp, skin, and most of all nova, all while maintaining really high DPS and a ton of defense thru CM proccing LOH/LS and spammable diamond skin.
Maybe they exist, but I have been a wizard since the game started, tried alls kinds of builds, CM is really powerful right now.
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I hope I linked that right.
Anyway my name is Vasarto and I am an ice wizard and hope to become the greatest frozen spell master of them all someday!
Here I am to share my thoughts of what I discovered so far and how different my tactics are and get questions and comments from you so that I may become an even better spell caster and survive in inferno fighting off the forces of hell even longer. Although I am still new to the game I have discovered much so lets begin!
Primary - Lets start with that left mouse button primary power. I noticed a major failing of many other wizards is that many do not even use primary skills. I see this as a fault as having a powerful spell to be cast for free is essential because...lets face it. No matter HOW powerful you are or how fast you regenerate your arcane power. YOU RUN OUT...100% of the time..All the time..every time...You ran out like 3 seconds ago while reading this I swear and promise you did. So do not lie about it. lol.
ok so now that is out of the way. its just logical that you need a good one. For the longest time I was using spectral blades. I found healing blades to be somewhat useful but then I found electrocute.
Electrocute with the rune arch lightning. Because let's face it. With the other skills in this list. If you are resorting to your primary or just wanna get up close then arch lightning electrocute is your best chance. It has high damage. Its fast if you are a one hand weapon wizard build and you never move from your spot ever.
Its a fan based attack so it has a wide area of reach around you and has good enemy catch overall. I found that it is also fun to use as well and looks really neat. If there was a ice primary that would had replaced this. But also the lightning damage gives an extra element just in case you run into any frozen monsters whom are resistent to ice type damage.
Secondary Skill - I replaced the secondary skill with Blizzard. I find that snowbound is quite useful because I spam blizzard a lot and especially over large groups of enemies and wanted a way to preserve my arcane for other spells further down.
Defensive - I find that like many others diamond skin is a god send. But my opinion of what rune to use differs. Many claim that the rune that expands your damage taken is best. I claim that a longer lasting skin is better because I often get caught in huge groups of little guys and having more time to run the heck away and hit that healing button or get away in general is much better than just being able to take one really large hit from a single guy. Pluse teleport is annoying and I just really freaking hate it like something bad. I think its the worst skill in the game for wizards next to magic missile which is boring. Does not hit wide area of enemies like I want it too and its not ice or lightning.
force - For the force spell slot I have meteor with comet rune. This makes meteor ice typed and quite powerful. It is a must have for any ice wizard and you would be a fool to go without it because for ice damage it hits for the most easily.
Conjeration - For the conjeration slot I put in ice armor. Not just because its ice but because I believe Energy armor is just inferior. Ice armor blocks for as much damage AND it freezes your enemies giving you time to run away and in multiplayer when you see diablo stop moving for two whole seconds. It means the difference between winning and TPK.
For passive skills I have been using Cold blooded, galvanizing ward and unstable anatomy. I find them somewhat useful but somehow I think I could do better.
for items I am slowly moving my way to full tal rasha set but without the off hand item. Plus a hell fire ring and Skorn as my weapon. I have picked up lots of items that are Really high in five main things
Magic Find
Vit or life %
Int
Resistence to all elements usually between 30-50 is what I got right now per item almost.
and items that give to a little extra armor but that is the least of them.
Battle tactics is usually to cast blizzard and a hydra and run away. Usually this works very well if I am in groups. I have ice armor on and run up and zap things moderatly with arch lightning to help clear out large groups of foes. and diamond skin in case something goes wrong or when I want to charge purposely into large groups. When I see clusters of enemies or speicials I use meteor often.
Boss fights usually means I get up in diablos or who evers face with ice armor. Zap em, Diamond skin myself half way of loosing my health. While all this is going on my hydra is shooting at them and blizzard is usually just worn off and I run off and heal. Most of the time boss or the enemies get frozen allowing my team mates free hits, me time to go heal and re cast my frost hydra and blzzard on him again a few times and than run back up and zap and freeze them some more.
So there we go. I will leave this open for comments and suggestions on how to improve
But running out of arcane power itself is not the problem, it's the consequences... which can be avoided as long as you full up again on AP within milliseconds.
So it's fair to say I never DIE to running out of AP, at that's the reason why people don't use signature skills. With 19 APoC using CM/WW build I never die to running out of arcane power, and never bottom out for more than literally a split second. And I don't even use a wizard helm with APoC, if I was ever having issues there's plenty more of the stat that I could pick up.
If you are running out of AP you should look into just getting some APoC instead of completely changing your build around it... my opinion anyway.
EDIT- here's your link btw
http://eu.battle.net...XiPf!Wfh!cbYYYY
OH!
I did find out something interesting! Apparently with the cold blood rune Ray of frost is "almost" free to caste.
So I am going to try it out....and problebly replace electrucute depending on how it does in combat. Vs Single and Large groups of enemies.
If It performs well and does not interfear with meteor and the other skills. I think this will be 100% ice then.
CM Wiz do not go out of AP like you think. And it is not very expensive to run the build, or a comparable build, that maintains mana.
There are budget guides for CM that work great, or you can use Living Lightning instead of WW and you can skip APOC which makes it cheaper to gear......and costs 0 AP to run.
So much this. I mean, I think everyone wants some efficiency, but for some, there comes a point where having fun becomes more important than whether you're getting enough EXP per hour or whatever.
I'm also running an ice wizard. Melee ice wizard. I know this suggestion will make me look crazy, but you should get some Frostburn Gauntlets. I know a lot of people say their crap because they don't do jack to your paper DPS, and I was skeptical at first, but since a perfectly rolled pair was only 70k on the AH, I gave it a try, and WOW. If you're main damage is ice, these give you a serious boost. For an ice wizard, it's basically a flat 30 percent boost to your DPS. Nothing short of trifecta gloves will get you that kind of boost in damage. Sure, the rest of the stats on it are garbage (pick up radius is always nice though!) but seriously, pick em' up cheap, and see what you think.
I can't comment much on your build. or rather I don't feel the need to, but I've been using Chilling Aura, and it's great for packs of fast enemies, really makes getting swarmed more bearable, especially with the recent buffs to CC. This could be valuable for you, since it could give you a chance to get away and continue kiting or whatever.
+1. If people ask for efficiency, I'll tell them the usual story of MP0 Archon blabla, but when I'm back from vacation in a few weeks I'll certainly try something new. It's a game, and not my job, I don't care about efficiency, I just want fun.
No one who posts about efficiency is trying to ruin your fun, they are just trying to help. If you sit there and wish you could kill better stuff or have more fun messing around with different builds that require you to throw away 5M on a set of gear you might not ever use again but can't because you don't have 5M to waste, that's why we are here
It's not a question of inefficiency so much as ineffectiveness, which is usually not fun.
Just to nitpick, this post was not listed as "for fun" anywhere in the thread title or the original post. It wasn't mentioned until post 4 and not even by the OP... if you don't want feedback or suggestions for improvement on your build, why post here in the first place?
No one was bashing the OP anyway. People were telling him his build isnt that good. We are entitled to that opinion.
More specifically, most people were telling him he made a false statement. He declared:
"No matter HOW powerful you are or how fast you regenerate your arcane power. YOU RUN OUT...100% of the time..All the time..every time...You ran out like 3 seconds ago while reading this I swear and promise you did. So do not lie about it. lol."
So clearly he was misinformed, and since this is a forum for Wizards, with a lot of Wizards that know this statement is false, people tried to tell him he is wrong. And almost all of them suggested better options. In fact, JK gave him very specific help on making his "ice wizard" build.
You can get mad about it if you want, but if you come to an open forum, post false statements, talk about how effective your new build is, expect some people might disagree. This is true even if he was 100% correct, because at the end of the day, everyone has there own opinion. You are not adding anything to the discussion or making things better by getting on here and bashing everyone who had a differing opinion, and expressed it. Especially when not a single post in here was rude or mean towards the OP.........
EDIT: Also just wanted to point out, this thread was actually pretty constructive until you 2 came along causing drama. reread the replies closely, look at where the thread derailed. It wasnt JK, me or any other wizard trying to help the OP.
This build is really really interesting. It's certainly not very fast as it's a deviation of the original kiting builds. I like this and I would prefer someone would try to change it a little bit but still maintain the original idea instead of turning this into another CMWW spec.
Anyways, regarding the AP discussion that emerged: I played around with a Disintegrate build recently and figured that if you get a Stone of Jordan (or other legendary) with AP cost reduction for a specific spell, use Astral Presence and the 4 set piece bonus of Tal Rasha (just buy the cheapest 4 you can find, they're still good enough for playing around a bit) - you won't have any AP problems. You don't need APoC/CMWW, there are other ways to maintain builds that seem to be AP-heavy on first glance. As soon as you fall back on APoC, you also need CM, and then you also need WW, and... in the end you're just one in a million and your unique build idea is gone. And this would be a shame. Keep on trying!
The build Ive been using up until about 3 days ago required no APOC.
I also agree there are other builds that work without APOC, but I have not found any builds that give the versatility of spammable teleport, Time Warp, skin, and most of all nova, all while maintaining really high DPS and a ton of defense thru CM proccing LOH/LS and spammable diamond skin.
Maybe they exist, but I have been a wizard since the game started, tried alls kinds of builds, CM is really powerful right now.