Stark Blizzard - covers massive AOE. It's a great spell to set up your position and to also keep chasers off your back. In the PvP patch, Blizzard deals massive damage and it's really nothing to be laughed at. I've considered Snowbound for more spammability, but the AOE is simply not the same. Lightning Hydra - serves as great sustained DPS. It's also highly useful to warn you of incoming players and also to gun down fast characters like perma-Vaulting demon hunters. Duplicates Mirror Images - this is your tanking source, since you can't hold off ranged projectiles like in the first build, you need something to keep things at bay. Teleport - the Fracture and Wormhole runes work best here. You might want to keep Fracture for distraction purposes, but covering distances while Blizzard does its job is also a huge plus with Wormhole. Crystal Diamond Skin - it won't hurt to have another layer of armor if your Mirror Images can't keep the arrows and bolts of energy off your back. Storm Armor - just like in the first build, Thunderstorm and Scramble are the favorite choices here.
Illusionist - like in the first build, Mirror Images and Teleport are both essential, thus Illusionist is a must to constantly keep the spells ready for use. Galvanizing Ward/Cold-Blooded - depends if you want to focus on a tad more survivability or more killing power. I advocate the killing power considering that the regeneration provided by GW isn't really enough. Unstable Anomaly - everyone's favorite passive right now, second to Illusionist. A second chance that also deals damage, why not?
I wanted to add in something interesting that I noticed when testing Mirror Image and it's interaction with other spells.
It's pretty obvious that Mirror Image is going to be a main staple skill in PvP, just like Teleport and the Illusionist passive. I wanted to incorporate Wave of Force into a PvP build that also uses MI and Tele. I found that the Images created by MI had a very limited number of spells they could cast, but thankfully WoF was one of them.
All Images created by any runs of MI could cast WoF, but for the most part, the waves did nothing unless you used Mirror Mimics, in which case the Waves behaved exactly as it does when you cast WoF, using the same rune effect you have on yours. This was pretty cool, and I enjoyed watching my Images cause significant knockback and stun with WoF: Impactful Waves. The WoF runes Force Affinity and Forceful Waves are lackluster when an Image casts them, while Exploding Wave seemed like it could be alright but very situational because the secondary waves don't hit the enemy who releases them, only other nearby enemies (if any).
Then I went on to testing Teleporting Wave, and it was fun too. It's not too useful on mobs bc they still track right to you the instant they're teleported, but I could see this being very fun vs players. But here's the kicker, and the whole point of this post-
- When an Image created by MI casts WoF: Teleporting Wave, it will randomly teleport any enemies hit, REGARDLESS of the rune used on MI. In addition, the images created by Teleport: Fracture can also cast WoF: Teleporting Wave, and those waves will cause effected enemies to be randomly teleported. These waves do no damage unless the images casting WoF were created with MI: Mirror Mimics, but they still all cause teleporting. -
All the sudden I could see 5 images casting Teleporting Wave, wreaking havoc on players as they are randomly teleported again and again. Or use Mocking Demise: if the enemy leaves them alive, they could get teleported. If the enemy kills your image, they could get stunned.
Maybe this is just a gimmicky trick and has no real value in PvP. I don't know, but it sure sounds like fun. On another note, Mirror Mimics can cast Frost Nova that does stun enemies, so combined with WoF they could provide a ton of CC (albeit a bit random/unreliable). Plus don't forget that you'd have WoF and maybe Frost Nova to cast as well. Just an idea.
Works like a charm. Spam mines, keep Arcane Orbit around you. Spam Seeker Missile to harass, Diamond Skin/Teleport to safety. Set up new mines, keep Orbit active.
Any idea how to counter a WD with jinx, haunt, leaping spiders, spirit vessel and spirit walk? Diamond skin wears off far too soon...
Timing. You can break disables with Mirror Image. So you want to pop Mirror Image the very moment you get locked down and quickly run Slow Time to hold everything in place and Teleport a safe distance away. It's all timing. Whoever sets up faster wins.
Just off the PTR. Seven sided strike teleporting monkl destroy the ranged build, it was the 1st that came to my mind on dueling. Also stomp rend cheese. So... teleport FN into CM induced permafrost. Anything below permafrost and you have to be quick with FN. Unstable Anomaly is now worth it. Tried healing cuts and it didn't work, you go either WW or Mystral.
In order to better spam blizzard (which is the only effective way I've found of doing dmg to WD and DH that always get the first shot on you from stealth) I'm actually considering
Along with tal rasha 4-set, and I would like to get one piece of.....wait for it....-Hydra cost gear.
With How much I use teleport/blizzard I often don't have a whole lot of AP, and a reduction to the cost of hydra should mean that I can cast it no matter what(almost) so I think I'm gonna start looking for a skull grasp with that stat on it. I already grabbed a high defense tal belt, and a +blizz duration source....though I may just look for another +blizz duration skull grasp instead.
This is my anti-melee-build. Basically kiting with lightning hydra while freezing and stunning as often as possible. Very annoying style for many monks and barbarians
It may be, but how will you be able to keep Nova up? With one Serenity, SSS, monks can break out of the disable and essentially knock you out with perma-stun/knockback (you should see those Sledge Fist monks, holy hell). You don't have your own counter-disables. Barbs can Leap out or worse, pop WotB.
The only way for you to successfully pull this off is if you cast Nova only when their disable-breaking spells are all on cooldown. And even if those spells are on cooldown, a single Stomp+HotA from a barb or a single Wave of Light from a monk will KO you, unless you're going against players with negligible DPS and you have some overboard EHP.
I feel like Mirror Image would give this build another dimension... perhaps instead of Diamond Skin. After all, Illusionist can reset Mirror Image, but not DS. I can test this out when I get back from work. Although I'll have to test this on highly geared players.
Hey Jaetch do you think 24% movement speed is mandatory for pvp?
Don't know which gear you are using while doing pvp but from your armory you just have the boots.
Whats your opinion?
Hey Jaetch do you think 24% movement speed is mandatory for pvp?
Don't know which gear you are using while doing pvp but from your armory you just have the boots.
Whats your opinion?
It would certainly help, but because 12% additional move speed come from either Lacuni or Inna's (both are horrid for EHP, unless a high int+vit+res Lacuni is in question)—and a less often used Compass Rose—I chose to go the significantly higher EHP route and use Scramble for the burst speed along with Teleport. I don't think it's mandatory at all if you can survive a couple of more hits than your opponent(s).
Hey Jaetch, Your signature says "Top wizard pvp ratings in North America". Wtf does that mean exactly? If it means what it sounds like is there a list compiled some where with ratings or some thing?
Today I used the Blizz-Hydra-build with the passive paralysis instead of galvanizing ward/cold blooded to great effect against a 300k dps-unbuffed dh. He got stunned so often that I bet he was rather annoyed later on ;)...
also @Jaetch: You're totally right with the Mirror image instead of Frost Nova, it really seems to be one of the go to skills for the pvp wiz.
I have to try Paralysis then. It's so often overlooked because of the uselessness it was in standard PvE runs. Perhaps they tweaked the rate?
Hey Jaetch, Your signature says "Top wizard pvp ratings in North America". Wtf does that mean exactly? If it means what it sounds like is there a list compiled some where with ratings or some thing?
PvP Dummy score answers to question:
Two heroes meet each other in arena, if they stand still and only DPS each other, without buffs, who would win?
Formula for PvP Dummy Score:
dps * ehp * K_DUMMY
All the values are unbuffed.
Explanation:
Hero1 kills Hero2 in ehp2/dps1 seconds.
Hero2 kills Hero1 in ehp1/dps2 seconds.
If ehp2/dps1 < ehp1/dps2, then ehp2*dps2 < ehp1*dps1.
It doesn't factor in life regeneration, though. But even then, you'd need thousands of HP per second to make it truly count.
Essentially, it means any wizard in the U.S. on average would lose to me if all we did was stand in front of each other and launch Magic Missiles at each other the entire time. Or in other words, the higher the PvP score, the longer you'd typically last 1v1 in a duel.
It's fairly accurate. I looked up the players who gave me a hard time and they all had scores higher than me on DiabloProgress.
May the heroes rise from the pit of despair and the bards sing of the day of death renewed to everlasting immortality....awaiting your return to the lands of Sanctuary may peace be with you on this day...your day of birth.
I have +7 sec to blizz duration so far, and am working to get a better SoJ...one thing I know i need sorely is way more eph, but ohh god can I cover the map with the regen from tal 4 set + astral regen and max ap.
Regarding the Blizzard-Hydra build, it's actually not that great against DHs and WDs of similar gear level. In this case, unless you have a bunch of AP regen, it's not feasible to spam Blizzard. I tried Snowbound instead, and it worked a little better. Still takes too long.
I have +7 sec to blizz duration so far, and am working to get a better SoJ...one thing I know i need sorely is way more eph, but ohh god can I cover the map with the regen from tal 4 set + astral regen and max ap.
and do for spamming blizzard and its duration (skip to T=20 sec to get past showing my gear and spec)
youtube.com/watch?feature=&v=dkpdGnAz0IE
With base regen, tal 4 set, and astral pressence my regen should be 14 AP/sec...with power of the storm rune on storm armor and snowbound on blizzard each cast costs 17 AP.
I have a hard time against monk, when it does dashing strike and seven sided strike i am dead, end of the story
he got serenity so i can't ensnare him and i can't do dmg, he's always at full hp and full mobility,
i have 80k hp and 770 all res on PTR but i still get steamrolled by any random monk
i spam duplicates, fracture and diamond skin but it's worthless
Timing, timing, timing.
You see a monk come in. You anticipate Serenity - FoT to close distance and stun with SSS.
Let the monk come in and let him hit you with FoT. As soon as SSS is popped, hit Mirror Image and immediately Wormhole to safety. Don't bother with ensnares. Focus on your own escape mechanisms.
Alternatively, he could skip SSS and use Wave of Light instead. In this case, pop Mirror Image + Diamond Skin and Wormhole out.
In all scenarios, you have to use Mirror Image to break the stun or the knockback the very moment the monk activates the abilities. Storm Armor will generally kill the monk while you're repositioning (and Illusionist should activate on any of the SSS or WoL hits) unless your DPS is horrid and the monk has insane EHP (in that case, you're simply outgeared and shouldn't win 1v1 anyway).
Other than testing everything out, I want to get as many builds together until we construct a dominating wizard in the majority of PvP scenarios.
Here are some builds in the works:
Stark Blizzard - covers massive AOE. It's a great spell to set up your position and to also keep chasers off your back. In the PvP patch, Blizzard deals massive damage and it's really nothing to be laughed at. I've considered Snowbound for more spammability, but the AOE is simply not the same.
Lightning Hydra - serves as great sustained DPS. It's also highly useful to warn you of incoming players and also to gun down fast characters like perma-Vaulting demon hunters.
Duplicates Mirror Images - this is your tanking source, since you can't hold off ranged projectiles like in the first build, you need something to keep things at bay.
Teleport - the Fracture and Wormhole runes work best here. You might want to keep Fracture for distraction purposes, but covering distances while Blizzard does its job is also a huge plus with Wormhole.
Crystal Diamond Skin - it won't hurt to have another layer of armor if your Mirror Images can't keep the arrows and bolts of energy off your back.
Storm Armor - just like in the first build, Thunderstorm and Scramble are the favorite choices here.
Illusionist - like in the first build, Mirror Images and Teleport are both essential, thus Illusionist is a must to constantly keep the spells ready for use.
Galvanizing Ward/Cold-Blooded - depends if you want to focus on a tad more survivability or more killing power. I advocate the killing power considering that the regeneration provided by GW isn't really enough.
Unstable Anomaly - everyone's favorite passive right now, second to Illusionist. A second chance that also deals damage, why not?
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
It's pretty obvious that Mirror Image is going to be a main staple skill in PvP, just like Teleport and the Illusionist passive. I wanted to incorporate Wave of Force into a PvP build that also uses MI and Tele. I found that the Images created by MI had a very limited number of spells they could cast, but thankfully WoF was one of them.
All Images created by any runs of MI could cast WoF, but for the most part, the waves did nothing unless you used Mirror Mimics, in which case the Waves behaved exactly as it does when you cast WoF, using the same rune effect you have on yours. This was pretty cool, and I enjoyed watching my Images cause significant knockback and stun with WoF: Impactful Waves. The WoF runes Force Affinity and Forceful Waves are lackluster when an Image casts them, while Exploding Wave seemed like it could be alright but very situational because the secondary waves don't hit the enemy who releases them, only other nearby enemies (if any).
Then I went on to testing Teleporting Wave, and it was fun too. It's not too useful on mobs bc they still track right to you the instant they're teleported, but I could see this being very fun vs players. But here's the kicker, and the whole point of this post-
- When an Image created by MI casts WoF: Teleporting Wave, it will randomly teleport any enemies hit, REGARDLESS of the rune used on MI. In addition, the images created by Teleport: Fracture can also cast WoF: Teleporting Wave, and those waves will cause effected enemies to be randomly teleported. These waves do no damage unless the images casting WoF were created with MI: Mirror Mimics, but they still all cause teleporting. -
All the sudden I could see 5 images casting Teleporting Wave, wreaking havoc on players as they are randomly teleported again and again. Or use Mocking Demise: if the enemy leaves them alive, they could get teleported. If the enemy kills your image, they could get stunned.
Maybe this is just a gimmicky trick and has no real value in PvP. I don't know, but it sure sounds like fun. On another note, Mirror Mimics can cast Frost Nova that does stun enemies, so combined with WoF they could provide a ton of CC (albeit a bit random/unreliable). Plus don't forget that you'd have WoF and maybe Frost Nova to cast as well. Just an idea.
Seeker Missile
Arcane Orbit
Arcane Mines
Wormhole Teleport
Crystal Shell
Scramble
+Illusionist, Unstable Anomaly. Temporal Flux
Works like a charm. Spam mines, keep Arcane Orbit around you. Spam Seeker Missile to harass, Diamond Skin/Teleport to safety. Set up new mines, keep Orbit active.
I hereby dub this the Turtle Wizard.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Timing. You can break disables with Mirror Image. So you want to pop Mirror Image the very moment you get locked down and quickly run Slow Time to hold everything in place and Teleport a safe distance away. It's all timing. Whoever sets up faster wins.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Just tried it against one of the top DHs in the U.S.
Works like a charm, though I swapped Fracture for Wormhole in order to cover more ground, and swapped Galvanizing Ward for Cold-Blooded.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
This build:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#liTkQX!dXh!YZbZYa
Along with tal rasha 4-set, and I would like to get one piece of.....wait for it....-Hydra cost gear.
With How much I use teleport/blizzard I often don't have a whole lot of AP, and a reduction to the cost of hydra should mean that I can cast it no matter what(almost) so I think I'm gonna start looking for a skull grasp with that stat on it. I already grabbed a high defense tal belt, and a +blizz duration source....though I may just look for another +blizz duration skull grasp instead.
It may be, but how will you be able to keep Nova up? With one Serenity, SSS, monks can break out of the disable and essentially knock you out with perma-stun/knockback (you should see those Sledge Fist monks, holy hell). You don't have your own counter-disables. Barbs can Leap out or worse, pop WotB.
The only way for you to successfully pull this off is if you cast Nova only when their disable-breaking spells are all on cooldown. And even if those spells are on cooldown, a single Stomp+HotA from a barb or a single Wave of Light from a monk will KO you, unless you're going against players with negligible DPS and you have some overboard EHP.
I feel like Mirror Image would give this build another dimension... perhaps instead of Diamond Skin. After all, Illusionist can reset Mirror Image, but not DS. I can test this out when I get back from work. Although I'll have to test this on highly geared players.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Don't know which gear you are using while doing pvp but from your armory you just have the boots.
Whats your opinion?
It would certainly help, but because 12% additional move speed come from either Lacuni or Inna's (both are horrid for EHP, unless a high int+vit+res Lacuni is in question)—and a less often used Compass Rose—I chose to go the significantly higher EHP route and use Scramble for the burst speed along with Teleport. I don't think it's mandatory at all if you can survive a couple of more hits than your opponent(s).
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
I see you have alot of it, what are the numbers you are aiming for?
Ty for your time
I don't have a number. I'm just going as high as I can possibly go :Thumbs Up:
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
I have to try Paralysis then. It's so often overlooked because of the uselessness it was in standard PvE runs. Perhaps they tweaked the rate?
It's a ratings system based on:
It doesn't factor in life regeneration, though. But even then, you'd need thousands of HP per second to make it truly count.
Essentially, it means any wizard in the U.S. on average would lose to me if all we did was stand in front of each other and launch Magic Missiles at each other the entire time. Or in other words, the higher the PvP score, the longer you'd typically last 1v1 in a duel.
It's fairly accurate. I looked up the players who gave me a hard time and they all had scores higher than me on DiabloProgress.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
immortality....awaiting your return to the lands of Sanctuary may peace be with you on this day...your day of birth.
The Crew
I have +7 sec to blizz duration so far, and am working to get a better SoJ...one thing I know i need sorely is way more eph, but ohh god can I cover the map with the regen from tal 4 set + astral regen and max ap.
That sounds like a solution to me.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
and do for spamming blizzard and its duration (skip to T=20 sec to get past showing my gear and spec)
youtube.com/watch?feature=&v=dkpdGnAz0IE
With base regen, tal 4 set, and astral pressence my regen should be 14 AP/sec...with power of the storm rune on storm armor and snowbound on blizzard each cast costs 17 AP.
Timing, timing, timing.
You see a monk come in. You anticipate Serenity - FoT to close distance and stun with SSS.
Let the monk come in and let him hit you with FoT. As soon as SSS is popped, hit Mirror Image and immediately Wormhole to safety. Don't bother with ensnares. Focus on your own escape mechanisms.
Alternatively, he could skip SSS and use Wave of Light instead. In this case, pop Mirror Image + Diamond Skin and Wormhole out.
In all scenarios, you have to use Mirror Image to break the stun or the knockback the very moment the monk activates the abilities. Storm Armor will generally kill the monk while you're repositioning (and Illusionist should activate on any of the SSS or WoL hits) unless your DPS is horrid and the monk has insane EHP (in that case, you're simply outgeared and shouldn't win 1v1 anyway).
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site