You might get the impression that this build is pure button mashing. This generalization is wrong. You will need skill and a LOT of practice.
My main is a Wizard with ~450 hours played and he has very good gear (~46k damage) but, to be honest, this spec is mostly "pure button mashing". I enjoy melting through tons of mobs in Whimsyshire for example but you do not need much skill and also not a lot of practice. Most of the packs are just cannon fodder; except a few ones with nasty affixes.
You may not have read the part about this being a guide for those that can't afford your GODLY gear
There ARE a lot of builds and you should go for what makes you happy but let's face it. Some, if not a lot, is trying really hard to get by. This is for my fellow wizards who have been one-shotted by a Molok; raped by elites; sent to an Alt+F4 rage by desecrate, shielding, invulnerable minions; and blown to bits by those terrorists in Keep Depths.
This is... sort of like a guide. Hopefully I could enlighten you as to why, if you are desperate to farm, the Wicked Wind - Critical Mass Wizard is the best farming build for this class. And I do believe, that for the average Joe (with at least 25M), it is superior to all other builds.
Here is why: This build is relatively cheap. You do not need a lot of dps. Dps is actually the least of your concerns. Let me remind you again: This is not for you if you have tons of gold. This "enlightenment program" will focus on sustainability rather than raw power.
What makes this build so insanely efficient? Or in general, what makes any build efficient? The answer is simple. Sustain life, resource and damage to the enemy.
Getting In On the Farming Train
You might get the impression that this build is pure button mashing. This generalization is wrong. You will need skill and a LOT of practice. When I started with the build I was like "WTF!? this is not effective. Screw this mobo." but I was now too poor to try other builds so I stuck by my investment.
What You Will Be Able To Do
Do a 30-minute farming route killing 10 elites and Siegebreaker with 1-5 deaths. 10 if you are unlucky.
What You Will Need
ITEMS
Follow these precisely(nothing lower). This concoction is tuned to be effective and cost efficient.
Gold: 25M budget
Helm: You will need...
4.0% Critical Hit Chance
10 Arcane on Crit
50 Intelligence (Optional)
50 Vitality (Optional)
60 All Resist
Estimated Cost: 3M-6M
Amulet:
5% Critical Hit Chance
45% Critical Hit Damage
50 Intelligence (Optional)
50 Vitality (Optional) Estimated Cost: 1.5M-3M
Ring (2x):
4.0% Critical Hit Chance
20% Critical Hit Damage (Optional)
80 Vitality
40 All Resist (Optional) Estimated Cost: 100k - 1.5M
Boots:
150 Intelligence
50 Vitality
70 All Resist Cost: 1M-2M
Main Weapon:
Dagger with 1.5 Attacks/second
700 DPS
800 Life On Hit
7% Increased Critical Hit Chance for Wicked Wind
Socket with 70% Crit Damage (Very Optional) Cost: 5M at most
Source:
95-350 Damage
8.0% Crit Chance
9-10 Arcane Power on Hit Cost: 5M at most
Hotkeyed MF Gear:
If this is against your principle then you should stop reading now. But for those that are desperate and willing to kick angels under the nuts just so they could farm decently then read on.
You could pass this as optional but then again may I remind you that you desperately need to farm effectively and you are low on cash. YES 25M is LOW ON CASH. You may have just found a rare item thats worth a lot and now you want to spend it on decent farming gear. There's a youtube video on how to setup your AutoHotkey but I won't expand on it right now. As I said, gear swapping is really important. That is WHY YOU ARE FARMING. By gear swapping you almost always get a rare item without 5 NV and 3-4 with 5 NV. Cost: 1M at most
Target Stats:
1100 Intelligence
600 Vitality (17-22k HP)
600 All Resist
130% Critical Hit Damage
41% Critical Hit Chance(sheet) + 3% Scoundrel +7% Wicked Wind Crit Chance Bonus (not shown)
350% MF Find on Gear Swap
19-20 Arcane on Hit
800 Life on Hit
Damage: 18k - 25k
SKILLS:
Diamond Skin - Crystal Shell
Frost Nova - Cold Snap/Bone Chill(if you reach 50% Critical hit Chance)
Explosive Blast - Chain Reaction
Energy Armor - Force Armor/Prismatic Armor if you reach 750 All Resist and 40K HP
Mouse1: Venom Hydra
Mouse2: Energy Twister - Wicked Wind
Farming Route and Farming Techniques
This farming route is relatively easy, there are only few ranged attacked and the dungeons allow you to kite a bit. Also there are doors that get large elites stuck, very convenient for squishy fellows.
Quest
Act III: Kill the Siegebreaker Assault Beast
Fortified Bunker
Lets start the game, head to the Arreat Gate, go down and Find the Fortified Bunker. Do not go in if its The Barracks because that is by far THE LARGEST DUNGEON I've ever seen. If it's not Fortified Bunker, remake.
The Fortified Bunker is smaller, has tons of lanterns which help a LOT. They stun elites and deal 100k damage. The blast radius is very big. Nothing is too difficult if you just run around and destroy every lantern they pass through. Piece of cake.
Here's a rundown on things you should know.
1. Be careful when passing through doors that block vision. Summon a hydra to check for monsters.
2. Don't worry about terrorists, they don't spawn here.
4. Moloks spawn at the middle square
Clear Level 1 and Level 2. DO NOT SKIP A PACK! This is practice! No pack is impossible for this build. You will probably get 4-5 stacks of NV. I will discuss later how to deal with each individual elite affix.
Once you have cleared Fortified Bunker head to Rakkis Crossing waypoint. If you are 1 NV short, either go to the Underbridge on Bridgestores. You can easily find one more pack here to complete you NV stack. Kill Siegebreaker. He's a dumb boss, probably the dumbest. Just button mash him to death.
Here's how I usually approach/kill him:
1. Plant Venom Hydra
2. Go to a place where he can't move a lot. It's the appendix like extension.
3. Mash Frost Nova and Explosive Blast while hold right-click(Wicked Wind) on him.
4. Only use Diamond Skin when you're half HP or when he grabbed you
5. Don't forget to MF swap so he'll drop 3-4 rares. We are poor and we do not have dignity.
Keep Depths 3
Teleport to Keep Depths 3 Waypoint and Finish the 2-3 packs. Don't forget... MF gear swap.
Keep Depths 1 and 2
Keep Depths 1 and 2 practically share the same waypoint. A friendly advice, when running away from mobs that seem to strong, always head to the waypoint. When you spawn they'll be there and avoid full health regeneration.
BE CAREFUL HERE.
1. Terrorists will run to you, explode and instakill you even with crystal shell. Do not take chances. You have a greater chance of dying from the hands of these terrorists than from elite packs.
2. Have your scoundrel use a Bow with Cold damage.
3. Moloks that spawn here are a pain but very manageable.
4. Tremors deal a lot of damage. I hate their design but very manageable.
5. Doors are your friends. Always pass through a door when kiting. There is a 30% chance they'll get stuck on the other side.
Resplendent Chests
Don't bother opening them. Blizzard sucks at putting rares on these chests. But if you really want to know. There's one in Fortified Bunker level 2 Keep depths level 1 or 2
Remake
Getting Around Affixes
I should again reiterate that nothing, NOTHING, is impossible. Every single pack can be felled. Here's how. BTW you would need skill and a bit of quick thinking... and maybe talent
Approaching Monsters/Elites
Always start off by making sure you know ALL the affixes. Only then you can approach them. Freeze them with Frost Nova and make sure you freeze the majority of the members of the pack. Start your wicked wind engine and button mash 1,2,3 or Q,W,E or whatever.
Vortex with Arcane Enchanted/Electrified/Fire Chains/Desecrate
This seems hard at first but when you get to know these combinations it becomes piece of cake. When they start spreading their offensive skills on the floor, run like hell! They will now use vortex. Make sure the monsters are nowhere near their damaging paraphernalia. Arcane sentries cause less damage the farther you are from its origin. So if you think you are going to get hit but by the distal part of the arcane arm, it's better to stay put and stun lock them.
Mortar/Plagued Sucks
No need to worry about plague. Just pretend that it isn't there. Mortar does not concern you
Electrified
If you are being driven into smashing you keyboard into your own face or monitor with this melee-ball-busting affix then rejoice. You are about to know the simplest technique to get around this problem.
As you may know each spark has its own collision radius. The most common mistake is that you get surrounded in all directions by monsters with Electrified. This causes you to take tons of sparks and not even your trusty all resist and diamond skin can do anything about it. What you should do is run a bit, go to a door, and stun-lock them on the other side, make sure they are all jammed in one direction. This way, sparks will hit you much less frequently than before.
Fire Chains
This affix is evil itself. Wizards are naturally squishy and just 2 seconds of fire chain will fry you into depression, or worse, tears. The easy solution is to run into a corner(make sure the pack is not Electrified) and stun-lock them their. By running into a corner, they won't be able to run around like homos and hit you with their vicious chains.
Arcane Enchanted and Desecrate
One thing i hate about the build is that it litters the place with SFX that sometimes you won't be able to see what's coming. But these offensive skills are easy to avoid by simply moving into a place where there isn't fire! Keep your eyes open. Don't blink.
Molten
Same as electrified only less irritating.
Frozen
You know if you have a girlfriend as she doesn't shut up and go get you food? That's frozen. This is your archnemesis. It will take you by surprise most of the time and you'll be like "WTF was that? Why did I die all of a sudden?" It's because 5 bombs were on your feet and you didn't see them because they're white and your stacking wicked wind is white. So again, EYES OPEN! This is absolute concentration we're talking about.
Shielding
Desyncronize their timing! Take a jog around the map for a while. Make sure the members of the pack activate shielding at different times. Stun-lock them to death then.
Invulnerable Minions
Find accessory white monsters to help you get more life on hit. Kite them to a place full of other monsters or other elites then kill the Mother of the pack there.
Invulnerable Minions, Ranged Mob, Electrified, Frozen and No other monsters in sight
You have my permission to skip this mob.
BTW, if you run the program, click "Find DPS", and then cancel, your app crashes with an InvalidCastException. You're trying to convert an empty string to an int somewhere.
Also... it feels wrong. I am getting way too many good stat rolls. I'm getting str/vit and crit damage/socket on almost every roll. Do you perhaps have a bias in your random affix logic?
BTW, after 16,000 rolls... no 1k+ weapon. If your simulator is accurate then I am even more depressed about loot drops in DIII than I was before...
I made 100,000 sample and got one halfway through. It is possible. You just really need to get that +50% weapon damage. just imagine that there are probably a million Rune Swords that are identified each day and only a handful of those can be seen in the ah.
BTW, if you run the program, click "Find DPS", and then cancel, your app crashes with an InvalidCastException. You're trying to convert an empty string to an int somewhere.
Also... it feels wrong. I am getting way too many good stat rolls. I'm getting str/vit and crit damage/socket on almost every roll.
Sorry, i forgot to mention that i upped the affix count for each sword (4-7). Kind of a personal thing. and about the error, i'm too lazy to clean up the program. maybe ill handle errors later. tired
In other words, this program is completely inaccurate and any assumptions gleaned from it can be tossed out the window.
BTW, if you run the program, click "Find DPS", and then cancel, your app crashes with an InvalidCastException. You're trying to convert an empty string to an int somewhere.
Also... it feels wrong. I am getting way too many good stat rolls. I'm getting str/vit and crit damage/socket on almost every roll.
Sorry, i forgot to mention that i upped the affix count for each sword (4-7). Kind of a personal thing. and about the error, i'm too lazy to clean up the program. maybe ill handle errors later. tired
Created a program that simulates identifying rune sword just so you can get a picture how hard it is to get a 1k dps item with it. Don't worry, it is clean. HAVE FUN!
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1hofRqpD-G4azd5d3JDM3YwaVE
Files -> Download
Open the rar file then click setup. .NET 3.0 required
*v1.2
-no decimals on min and max damage
-added custom max rolls
*v1.3
-reduced affix count from(4-7) to (3-6)
*v1.4
-fixed crash
-made fixes on stat rolls after a bit of research
*v1.5
-fixed a bug that didn't factor in +% weapon damage. how careless
Don't forget to share your godly rune swords!
Preview:
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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You may not have read the part about this being a guide for those that can't afford your GODLY gear
sorry i didnt notice i set the file to private. its public now
There ARE a lot of builds and you should go for what makes you happy but let's face it. Some, if not a lot, is trying really hard to get by. This is for my fellow wizards who have been one-shotted by a Molok; raped by elites; sent to an Alt+F4 rage by desecrate, shielding, invulnerable minions; and blown to bits by those terrorists in Keep Depths.
This is... sort of like a guide. Hopefully I could enlighten you as to why, if you are desperate to farm, the Wicked Wind - Critical Mass Wizard is the best farming build for this class. And I do believe, that for the average Joe (with at least 25M), it is superior to all other builds.
Here is why: This build is relatively cheap. You do not need a lot of dps. Dps is actually the least of your concerns. Let me remind you again: This is not for you if you have tons of gold. This "enlightenment program" will focus on sustainability rather than raw power.
What makes this build so insanely efficient? Or in general, what makes any build efficient? The answer is simple. Sustain life, resource and damage to the enemy.
Getting In On the Farming Train
You might get the impression that this build is pure button mashing. This generalization is wrong. You will need skill and a LOT of practice. When I started with the build I was like "WTF!? this is not effective. Screw this mobo." but I was now too poor to try other builds so I stuck by my investment.
What You Will Be Able To Do
Do a 30-minute farming route killing 10 elites and Siegebreaker with 1-5 deaths. 10 if you are unlucky.
What You Will Need
ITEMS
Follow these precisely(nothing lower). This concoction is tuned to be effective and cost efficient.
Gold: 25M budget
Helm: You will need...
4.0% Critical Hit Chance
10 Arcane on Crit
50 Intelligence (Optional)
50 Vitality (Optional)
60 All Resist
Estimated Cost: 3M-6M
Amulet:
5% Critical Hit Chance
45% Critical Hit Damage
50 Intelligence (Optional)
50 Vitality (Optional)
Estimated Cost: 1.5M-3M
Ring (2x):
4.0% Critical Hit Chance
20% Critical Hit Damage (Optional)
80 Vitality
40 All Resist (Optional)
Estimated Cost: 100k - 1.5M
Shoulder:
150 Intelligence
20 Vitality
70 All Resist
Estimated Cost: 3M
Chest Armor:
100 Intelligence/Vitality
3 Sockets with 3 Star Topazes
65 All Resist
Estimated Cost: 1M-2M(+1.8M for the gems)
Bracer:
3.0 Critical Hit Chance
150 Intelligence
100 Vitality (Optional)
40 All Resist
Estimated Cost: 3M-4M
Belt:
150 Intelligence
70 All Resist
Some Vit if you like
Estimated Cost: 1.5M
Gloves:
8.0% Critical Hit Chance
30% Critical Hit Damage
Some All Resists (30-60)
Some Stats (40-80 Int)
Estimated Cost: 5M-10M
Pants:
150 Intelligence
100 Vitality
60 All Resist
Estimated Cost: 1M-2M
Boots:
150 Intelligence
50 Vitality
70 All Resist
Cost: 1M-2M
Main Weapon:
Dagger with 1.5 Attacks/second
700 DPS
800 Life On Hit
7% Increased Critical Hit Chance for Wicked Wind
Socket with 70% Crit Damage (Very Optional)
Cost: 5M at most
Source:
95-350 Damage
8.0% Crit Chance
9-10 Arcane Power on Hit
Cost: 5M at most
Hotkeyed MF Gear:
If this is against your principle then you should stop reading now. But for those that are desperate and willing to kick angels under the nuts just so they could farm decently then read on.
You could pass this as optional but then again may I remind you that you desperately need to farm effectively and you are low on cash. YES 25M is LOW ON CASH. You may have just found a rare item thats worth a lot and now you want to spend it on decent farming gear. There's a youtube video on how to setup your AutoHotkey but I won't expand on it right now. As I said, gear swapping is really important. That is WHY YOU ARE FARMING. By gear swapping you almost always get a rare item without 5 NV and 3-4 with 5 NV.
Cost: 1M at most
Target Stats:
1100 Intelligence
600 Vitality (17-22k HP)
600 All Resist
130% Critical Hit Damage
41% Critical Hit Chance(sheet) + 3% Scoundrel +7% Wicked Wind Crit Chance Bonus (not shown)
350% MF Find on Gear Swap
19-20 Arcane on Hit
800 Life on Hit
Damage: 18k - 25k
SKILLS:
Diamond Skin - Crystal Shell
Frost Nova - Cold Snap/Bone Chill(if you reach 50% Critical hit Chance)
Explosive Blast - Chain Reaction
Energy Armor - Force Armor/Prismatic Armor if you reach 750 All Resist and 40K HP
Mouse1: Venom Hydra
Mouse2: Energy Twister - Wicked Wind
Farming Route and Farming Techniques
This farming route is relatively easy, there are only few ranged attacked and the dungeons allow you to kite a bit. Also there are doors that get large elites stuck, very convenient for squishy fellows.
Quest
Act III: Kill the Siegebreaker Assault Beast
Fortified Bunker
Lets start the game, head to the Arreat Gate, go down and Find the Fortified Bunker. Do not go in if its The Barracks because that is by far THE LARGEST DUNGEON I've ever seen. If it's not Fortified Bunker, remake.
The Fortified Bunker is smaller, has tons of lanterns which help a LOT. They stun elites and deal 100k damage. The blast radius is very big. Nothing is too difficult if you just run around and destroy every lantern they pass through. Piece of cake.
Here's a rundown on things you should know.
1. Be careful when passing through doors that block vision. Summon a hydra to check for monsters.
2. Don't worry about terrorists, they don't spawn here.
4. Moloks spawn at the middle square
Clear Level 1 and Level 2. DO NOT SKIP A PACK! This is practice! No pack is impossible for this build. You will probably get 4-5 stacks of NV. I will discuss later how to deal with each individual elite affix.
Once you have cleared Fortified Bunker head to Rakkis Crossing waypoint. If you are 1 NV short, either go to the Underbridge on Bridgestores. You can easily find one more pack here to complete you NV stack. Kill Siegebreaker. He's a dumb boss, probably the dumbest. Just button mash him to death.
Here's how I usually approach/kill him:
1. Plant Venom Hydra
2. Go to a place where he can't move a lot. It's the appendix like extension.
3. Mash Frost Nova and Explosive Blast while hold right-click(Wicked Wind) on him.
4. Only use Diamond Skin when you're half HP or when he grabbed you
5. Don't forget to MF swap so he'll drop 3-4 rares. We are poor and we do not have dignity.
Keep Depths 3
Teleport to Keep Depths 3 Waypoint and Finish the 2-3 packs. Don't forget... MF gear swap.
Keep Depths 1 and 2
Keep Depths 1 and 2 practically share the same waypoint. A friendly advice, when running away from mobs that seem to strong, always head to the waypoint. When you spawn they'll be there and avoid full health regeneration.
BE CAREFUL HERE.
1. Terrorists will run to you, explode and instakill you even with crystal shell. Do not take chances. You have a greater chance of dying from the hands of these terrorists than from elite packs.
2. Have your scoundrel use a Bow with Cold damage.
3. Moloks that spawn here are a pain but very manageable.
4. Tremors deal a lot of damage. I hate their design but very manageable.
5. Doors are your friends. Always pass through a door when kiting. There is a 30% chance they'll get stuck on the other side.
Resplendent Chests
Don't bother opening them. Blizzard sucks at putting rares on these chests. But if you really want to know. There's one in Fortified Bunker level 2 Keep depths level 1 or 2
Remake
Getting Around Affixes
I should again reiterate that nothing, NOTHING, is impossible. Every single pack can be felled. Here's how. BTW you would need skill and a bit of quick thinking... and maybe talent
Approaching Monsters/Elites
Always start off by making sure you know ALL the affixes. Only then you can approach them. Freeze them with Frost Nova and make sure you freeze the majority of the members of the pack. Start your wicked wind engine and button mash 1,2,3 or Q,W,E or whatever.
Vortex with Arcane Enchanted/Electrified/Fire Chains/Desecrate
This seems hard at first but when you get to know these combinations it becomes piece of cake. When they start spreading their offensive skills on the floor, run like hell! They will now use vortex. Make sure the monsters are nowhere near their damaging paraphernalia. Arcane sentries cause less damage the farther you are from its origin. So if you think you are going to get hit but by the distal part of the arcane arm, it's better to stay put and stun lock them.
Mortar/Plagued Sucks
No need to worry about plague. Just pretend that it isn't there. Mortar does not concern you
Electrified
If you are being driven into smashing you keyboard into your own face or monitor with this melee-ball-busting affix then rejoice. You are about to know the simplest technique to get around this problem.
As you may know each spark has its own collision radius. The most common mistake is that you get surrounded in all directions by monsters with Electrified. This causes you to take tons of sparks and not even your trusty all resist and diamond skin can do anything about it. What you should do is run a bit, go to a door, and stun-lock them on the other side, make sure they are all jammed in one direction. This way, sparks will hit you much less frequently than before.
Fire Chains
This affix is evil itself. Wizards are naturally squishy and just 2 seconds of fire chain will fry you into depression, or worse, tears. The easy solution is to run into a corner(make sure the pack is not Electrified) and stun-lock them their. By running into a corner, they won't be able to run around like homos and hit you with their vicious chains.
Arcane Enchanted and Desecrate
One thing i hate about the build is that it litters the place with SFX that sometimes you won't be able to see what's coming. But these offensive skills are easy to avoid by simply moving into a place where there isn't fire! Keep your eyes open. Don't blink.
Molten
Same as electrified only less irritating.
Frozen
You know if you have a girlfriend as she doesn't shut up and go get you food? That's frozen. This is your archnemesis. It will take you by surprise most of the time and you'll be like "WTF was that? Why did I die all of a sudden?" It's because 5 bombs were on your feet and you didn't see them because they're white and your stacking wicked wind is white. So again, EYES OPEN! This is absolute concentration we're talking about.
Shielding
Desyncronize their timing! Take a jog around the map for a while. Make sure the members of the pack activate shielding at different times. Stun-lock them to death then.
Invulnerable Minions
Find accessory white monsters to help you get more life on hit. Kite them to a place full of other monsters or other elites then kill the Mother of the pack there.
Invulnerable Minions, Ranged Mob, Electrified, Frozen and No other monsters in sight
You have my permission to skip this mob.
I made 100,000 sample and got one halfway through. It is possible. You just really need to get that +50% weapon damage. just imagine that there are probably a million Rune Swords that are identified each day and only a handful of those can be seen in the ah.
Fixed the affix count. It is 99% accurate now.
Sorry, i forgot to mention that i upped the affix count for each sword (4-7). Kind of a personal thing. and about the error, i'm too lazy to clean up the program. maybe ill handle errors later. tired
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1hofRqpD-G4azd5d3JDM3YwaVE
Files -> Download
Open the rar file then click setup. .NET 3.0 required
*v1.2
-no decimals on min and max damage
-added custom max rolls
*v1.3
-reduced affix count from(4-7) to (3-6)
*v1.4
-fixed crash
-made fixes on stat rolls after a bit of research
*v1.5
-fixed a bug that didn't factor in +% weapon damage. how careless
Don't forget to share your godly rune swords!
Preview: