Generally, what I do when trying to figure out a build is to find a skill (archon), skill combo (frost nova - critical mass), or aspect of the class/game that you'd like to focus on, then build off of that. I also try to focus on one or two attack skills and have everything else be support. Judging by her profile, I'm guessing she likes Blizzard, so I'll go off of that.
Something like this might appeal to her. Order of picks:
Blizzard
Cold-blooded (adds damage with no downside)
Blur (defense)
Energy Armor (defense)
Magic Weapon (damage + defense)
Diamond Skin (defense)
Familiar (damage)
Spectral Blades (damage + life)
Galvanizing Wizard (life + convenience)
As you go down the list, everything becomes more and more optional and customizable for play style. Maybe she just wants to demolish everything in lower MPs or be a storm wizard, in which case maybe she should drop energy armor for storm armor. Maybe she wants to go completely frost based so she goes with frozen armor. Really, you just start off with the idea and look for synergies between skills to maximize the effects of your main aspect you are looking for.
I think that if you (just you or both of you) pick out skills in this fashion, she'll have more fun with the build than she would by just taking someone else's build offline.
It depends what your goals are. If you want to level then just keep running. If you want to make some money, then pick stuff up. I can tell you I have found some very good items in mp0 including something I found yesterday that could potentially sell for over 100m. Personally, I'd rather keep my half hour runs and know I'm not missing anything rather than level as quickly as possible.
Simple. B/c there are NO good shields for ANY class atm in D3. This needs to be addressed when they introduce more legs. in a future patch. Itemization in d3 does exactly opposite of what blizzard said they wanted: create diverse, unique, and different builds. Every class with the exception of a few items looks pretty much the same. (look at how many toons use vile wards, echoing fury, skorn...etc etc.) But talking about this problem has proved to be like kickin a dead horse....
Legendaries blew monkey chunks before 1.0.4 and people bitched a fit about it so they upped the power of legendaries. Now, everyone uses legendaries because it's easier to put a name into a build as opposed to putting 4-5 key stats to look for. Rares can still roll better than the legendaries, which is key, but they just cost so damn much that no one can afford them. The way to fix it is to find a way to bring top level gear prices back down to normal levels. The only way I know to do that is to increase supply which means higher end rolls need to drop more. Once that happens, though, the economy tanks and gold isn't worth anything, just like in D2.
If you want more damage, switch from for the master to provoke the pack. I've been able to more than triple my dps without any CD reduction. I'm not sure how that affects your survivability, but you will be killing things a lot faster and health globes from the dogs and the extra health from life steal after increasing damage should theoretically suffice.
I laughed a little inside when they nerfed spectral blades because comparatively it is terrible.
I'm not so sure that spectral blades is being nerfed. They are increasing damage from 135% to 165% and the range from 10 yards to 15 yards. The range will increase the number of proc attempts, thus the decrease in proc chance to keep it even. Still an overall buff to spectral blades. If you also take into account some of the changes to the runes like removing crit requirement for healing blades it seems to make it a little more viable for low-level, survival builds.
No, that was the Force Armor rune on Energy Armor. They made it so that it would not absorb more than 100% of your total health for a single hit, so if you took more that 135% damage, It would deal the first 35% to you, absorb 100%, then deal the rest to you.
He's an old man prone to rambling. She probably thought he was off his rocker. If someone told you that demons were roaming the earth 100 years ago (I know it's 20 in the story, but to get to a point where there were no tvs or anything...), they met an archangel, stood in a fortress in hell, and watched someone save the world, would you believe them?
The issue was how often effects were triggered due to IAS. Critical Mass would be another one that would be abused with obscene amounts of IAS and Crit chance. LoH isn't as likely to cause an imbalance as IAS is.
Define viable? Viable to cruise through Inferno without dying? Probably not. Viable to keep yourself alive in Inferno if you are careful and go slow? Probably.
If I understand correctly, the flow of mechanics are:
1. Incoming damage reduced by armor and resists
2. Take 35% from character HP
3. FA absorbs 65% of HP's worth from damage
4. Subtract the remaining damage from HP
Is that about right? Thanks again.
Step 3 should be 100%
If the damage is <35% of your health then you take the damage.
If the damage is >35% and <135% of your health then you take 35%
If the damage is >135% then you take the damage - 100% of your health
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WlXOjS!fZW!YZacac
Something like this might appeal to her. Order of picks:
Blizzard
Cold-blooded (adds damage with no downside)
Blur (defense)
Energy Armor (defense)
Magic Weapon (damage + defense)
Diamond Skin (defense)
Familiar (damage)
Spectral Blades (damage + life)
Galvanizing Wizard (life + convenience)
As you go down the list, everything becomes more and more optional and customizable for play style. Maybe she just wants to demolish everything in lower MPs or be a storm wizard, in which case maybe she should drop energy armor for storm armor. Maybe she wants to go completely frost based so she goes with frozen armor. Really, you just start off with the idea and look for synergies between skills to maximize the effects of your main aspect you are looking for.
I think that if you (just you or both of you) pick out skills in this fashion, she'll have more fun with the build than she would by just taking someone else's build offline.
Legendaries blew monkey chunks before 1.0.4 and people bitched a fit about it so they upped the power of legendaries. Now, everyone uses legendaries because it's easier to put a name into a build as opposed to putting 4-5 key stats to look for. Rares can still roll better than the legendaries, which is key, but they just cost so damn much that no one can afford them. The way to fix it is to find a way to bring top level gear prices back down to normal levels. The only way I know to do that is to increase supply which means higher end rolls need to drop more. Once that happens, though, the economy tanks and gold isn't worth anything, just like in D2.
They don't have to account for leap year. The winter solstice is a yearly occurrence and is independent of leap days.
3PM PDT.
I'm not so sure that spectral blades is being nerfed. They are increasing damage from 135% to 165% and the range from 10 yards to 15 yards. The range will increase the number of proc attempts, thus the decrease in proc chance to keep it even. Still an overall buff to spectral blades. If you also take into account some of the changes to the runes like removing crit requirement for healing blades it seems to make it a little more viable for low-level, survival builds.
Define viable? Viable to cruise through Inferno without dying? Probably not. Viable to keep yourself alive in Inferno if you are careful and go slow? Probably.
Step 3 should be 100%
If the damage is <35% of your health then you take the damage.
If the damage is >35% and <135% of your health then you take 35%
If the damage is >135% then you take the damage - 100% of your health
It took him longer to post this thread than to RTFA.