Hi all,
I recently came back to the game and made the switch from Hardcore to Softcore, and while I was at it I figured I'd try out a Wizard and really shake my game up. Unfortunately I'm having a hard time figuring out what to upgrade next. Would anyone be willing to take a look at my profile and give me some tips on what I can do? I have about a billion gold to spend. I've been running at MP3 right now, and I pretty much melt anything in my path. I tried to do a CMWW build, but found myself far to squishy for it, plus it doesn't really fit my play style. Profile is below and I really appreciate any help you can give!
First I'd say pick either disintegrate or Archon and gear around that. Archon is more efficient but disintegrate can let you run higher MP with less dps for more challenge if that's what you're looking for. Gearing is slightly different for each since you need APoC and probably -AP cost for Disintegrate. You also want to avoid IAS as much as possible, and you'd want to tweak the build around using the skill. For Archon you just gear for high dps and tack on defensive stats. You make your skillset based on the assumption you're in Archon form a lot, with something to do when out of to refresh it. IMO that means FN plus either LL or WW, depending on if you want to swap to a 10 APoC piece as needed to refresh Archon.
Personally I'd drop the Lacuni for crafted bracers, if you have a decent pair. You should be able to gain quite a bit of dps out of them. If you want extra movement speed I prefer Inna's pants since inna's gives best dps in pant slot and crafted give best dps in bracer slot. You'll lose some EHP in the process though because those are pretty decent pants.
I'd look into replacing the weapon too. While the dps is high, that's about all it has going for it. CD is a lot better than weapon dps, especially at high gear levels. You have neither a socket nor base CD on the weapon, so you're missing on a lot of potential dps. Higher CD will also make CC more effective, which makes the bracer change even more important. I'd look at OS+CD+LS weapons, around 1k dps to start depending on budget, and see what sort of dps that gives you. You don't have to have LS if you don't want but it really makes higher MP a lot easier. You can then compare those weapons with say 1100 dps weapon with just OS+LS. Either way the goal is to just get the weapon that raises your char sheet dps the most. Trading weapon damage for a socket and/or CD should be a net gain in char sheet dps.
For example, if you look at my weapon you probably think the weapon dps is very low. If I were to remove the 62% CD from the weapon I would need a 1225 dps weapon to almost give me the same dps. So that 62% CD is worth about 155 weapon dps. If I were to instead drop the int from it, I would need a 1130 dps weapon to be the same, so the Int is only worth about 60 weapon dps. If I were to drop the CD and OS, and just have int, like your weapon, I would need a 1610 dps weapon to not lose dps. In other words the CD gains from my weapon vastly outweigh the lower weapon dps.
Thank you so much. I think i'm going to center around archon and drop disintigrate like you said. I'll switch out the weapon like you said and focus on getting one with the socket and CD. Since I just started playing again, I'm trying to build up my demonic essences right now to start the crafting process. I'll start out on my bracers, and then eventually switch to Inna's pants. Would you suggest me going for gloves or shoulders after that in terms of crafting. Also, what do you consider decent on stats for the crafted. Should I make sure it has AR and CC/CD or just go for 2/3?
For Archon there's a couple different gearing strats you can go with. If you just want to farm low MP, you don't need a ton of armor and resists, so you can aim for like 280 Int, 5+CC bracers, preferably with some vit. If you want to run higher MP, which is now as efficient or even more efficient for XP, then you'll need more survivability so you want 60+AR in addition to CC and vit, so you might have to settle for 210-230 int bracers. I'm still working on crafting some 250+int bracers with crit and AR.
Aside from bracers I think shoulders is the other important craftable piece for Archon, something like 250+int, vit and/or Life%, and high AR. Armor is great but probably not as important as the higher Int, and you can always stack extra AR and armor on other pieces, which is what I do for my Archon set.
Gloves and amulet should be saved for after you have a decent shoulder and bracer piece, imo. There's a ton of RNG involved in getting good versions of those pieces so you're fine with what you have in the mean time. Getting an upgrade from crafting might take you a while.
Yeah, crafting the right item can be very random. In like 30 tries I got two amazing shoulders, one of which I am wearing and in about the same amount of tries I got my bracers which make me cry happy tears every time I see them. On the other hand have had 0 luck with amulets and am very very frustrated. I have lost count of the amount of attempts that I have made for even a single semi-decent amulet.
You can check out the crafted shoulder and bracers in my sig below. If you do get good bracers, make sure you switch to Inna Pants.
I can definitely relate. My ammy I got after like 10 crafts. My shoulders after a few dozen maybe. Not sure when I got these bracers, but I had some similar ones without the physical resist I got after about a dozen. Got some 9%IAS+8.5CC gloves after just a couple crafts too, which I eventually replaced with my current ones. I've done lots of crafts since and still have yet to get better shoulders (similar int and AR but with more total hp and/or armor) or a pair of double int bracers with crit and high AR, not to mention vit. Still, it gives me something to do and makes farming more interesting.
I recently came back to the game and made the switch from Hardcore to Softcore, and while I was at it I figured I'd try out a Wizard and really shake my game up. Unfortunately I'm having a hard time figuring out what to upgrade next. Would anyone be willing to take a look at my profile and give me some tips on what I can do? I have about a billion gold to spend. I've been running at MP3 right now, and I pretty much melt anything in my path. I tried to do a CMWW build, but found myself far to squishy for it, plus it doesn't really fit my play style. Profile is below and I really appreciate any help you can give!
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aenderung-1431/hero/3486933
Personally I'd drop the Lacuni for crafted bracers, if you have a decent pair. You should be able to gain quite a bit of dps out of them. If you want extra movement speed I prefer Inna's pants since inna's gives best dps in pant slot and crafted give best dps in bracer slot. You'll lose some EHP in the process though because those are pretty decent pants.
I'd look into replacing the weapon too. While the dps is high, that's about all it has going for it. CD is a lot better than weapon dps, especially at high gear levels. You have neither a socket nor base CD on the weapon, so you're missing on a lot of potential dps. Higher CD will also make CC more effective, which makes the bracer change even more important. I'd look at OS+CD+LS weapons, around 1k dps to start depending on budget, and see what sort of dps that gives you. You don't have to have LS if you don't want but it really makes higher MP a lot easier. You can then compare those weapons with say 1100 dps weapon with just OS+LS. Either way the goal is to just get the weapon that raises your char sheet dps the most. Trading weapon damage for a socket and/or CD should be a net gain in char sheet dps.
For example, if you look at my weapon you probably think the weapon dps is very low. If I were to remove the 62% CD from the weapon I would need a 1225 dps weapon to almost give me the same dps. So that 62% CD is worth about 155 weapon dps. If I were to instead drop the int from it, I would need a 1130 dps weapon to be the same, so the Int is only worth about 60 weapon dps. If I were to drop the CD and OS, and just have int, like your weapon, I would need a 1610 dps weapon to not lose dps. In other words the CD gains from my weapon vastly outweigh the lower weapon dps.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
Aside from bracers I think shoulders is the other important craftable piece for Archon, something like 250+int, vit and/or Life%, and high AR. Armor is great but probably not as important as the higher Int, and you can always stack extra AR and armor on other pieces, which is what I do for my Archon set.
Gloves and amulet should be saved for after you have a decent shoulder and bracer piece, imo. There's a ton of RNG involved in getting good versions of those pieces so you're fine with what you have in the mean time. Getting an upgrade from crafting might take you a while.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
You can check out the crafted shoulder and bracers in my sig below. If you do get good bracers, make sure you switch to Inna Pants.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard