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Here's my lightning wizard. In the first week of the season I was at one point rank 2/3 in hardcore seasonal but fell off due to school and Firebird wizards kind of being OP.



http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Alacor-1320/hero/51911292



I believe Thunderfury's proc is better than Odyn Son, but if you can get a Ramalandi's, Odyn Son might be better because of the lightning % damage, however you'll be able to get a lot more weapon damage with a Thunderfury w/ Ramalandi's so I'm not entirely sure.

Also, I'd keep the int on it probably.

Here's the build I've been running in seasonal hardcore for a while: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Alacor-1320/hero/51911292



I've found that dropping Storm Armor - Shocking Aspect results in a pretty big DPS loss. I'm also unable to sustain infinite arcane power with Conduit without using Arcanot(even though I also have additional regen from Tal's set), so I use that instead of Blizzard.

You miss out on a lot of damage as a lightning wizard by not taking Storm Armor. I also ran lightning meteor for a while on my seasonal hardcore wizard, but found much more success with Arcane Torrent - Static Discharge. I recently worked 4 piece Tal's into my setup as well and am able to get 3 of the 4 meteors to activate which is pretty nice.



Here's my character: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Alacor-1320/hero/51911292



I dropped my Thunderfury for the bonesaber once I get a Ramalandi's. I do kind of miss the Thunderfury, but the bonesaber was just waaay more weapon damage.

I'm pretty attached to my Thunderfury & Triumvirate combo, so don't think I'll be going for a 2Her.



Orb is way too weak to be viable. It's like ~300% weapon damage as opposed to Arcane Torrent w/ Static Charge that goes up to over 1000%, among other reasons. The only other spender I've had decent success with was Meteor. I've tried a build using Myken's and the helm that doubles electrocute jumps while using the chain lightning rune. Used Blizzard as a spender there and it worked well enough for clearing groups but man is it slow once you're down to one mob, or the mobs are spread out far enough.



@Venaliter: It doesn't matter what element the damage on your Wand of Woh is at all. The element of the damage on a weapon has no effect on anything really. Cold weapons used to slow, but I believe they got rid of that for consistency. What matters is +elemental skill damage %(Lightning skills deal 10% more damage, etc) and the element of the skills/runes you use. Using say, a weapon that has fire elemental damage as opposed to lightning for a lightning Wizard build will be just as effective.



Dunno why they made the element of weapon damage not matter, but yeah...

Quote from Teawalker

Quote from Alacor

I use the same build except instead of running without a primary skill, I use piercing orb instead of Arcanot. I tried 4-piece Tal's and actually preferred my current setup(Stormcrow, Tal's Chest, Thundergod's, etc). Although that was when I was still running lightning meteor, so it might be worth using considering I've since changed to Arcane Torrent. I don't think I'll like it, still.

Thing is, with AT, you will never run out of Arcane power, and ability to constantly spam spenders, instead of generators+spenders is a Huge(!) dps boost, considering how bad are our generators atm.
Stormcrow and Thundergod sound good enough, but I don't have those, and my only hope, is to get myself last piece of Tal's for damage boost.

Such a shame, though, that we are forced to play fire. Lightning, just has that amazing feel to it. I think that some set bonus, or gem proc, that allows every lightning damage source, to have a 50% chance to strike again (which includes proc themselves), will blast us so far ahead. Sweet dreams.

I'll try out Arcanot. Wouldn't I probably need the Tal's bonus as well to sustain having only spenders, though?

Quote from Demacre

Another baby sparky sparky boom lightning wiz here, my build looks similar to those up there.

Lots of fun but I'm planning the switch to fire soon.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Demacre-2255/hero/47767837

Yeah, until they give other elements more love akin to Cindercoat, Magefists, and Firebird's, fire's going to be by far the best. I could see a Rimeheart/Frostburns cold build being pretty viable, but those are two very rare items there. And I believe Frostburns tends to roll pretty shittily. =\

Quote from Teawalker

Went lightning with seasons. Lightning looks amazing, but you are going to hit the brick wall sooner or later.

Currently, I almost can pass through grift 26. Some luck with layout/density/tweaking some % here and there, and maybe I can go up to grift 28.

The build itself:

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#NejQTS!VSiZ!aYYZcZ

Use blizzard - lightning rune, on easier difficulties for you. Also you should swap Storm armour to prismatic one, if you feel you are not tough enough. Though it is a pretty drastic drop on DPS.

The best thing to do though (apart from becoming yet another pyromancer) is to get Tal Rasha 4p bonus, and swap skills and passives accordingly. Also to get a untity and SoJ, and furnace, and then, maybe, you will be able to get to 30+ grifts. But well, as I said, don't expect to compete for top spots in pure lightning. At least for now.

I use the same build except instead of running without a primary skill, I use piercing orb instead of Arcanot. I tried 4-piece Tal's and actually preferred my current setup(Stormcrow, Tal's Chest, Thundergod's, etc). Although that was when I was still running lightning meteor, so it might be worth using considering I've since changed to Arcane Torrent. I don't think I'll like it, still.

Look for me under Solo Wizard for Hardcore Seasonal ladders. (I'm currently rank 45 with a tier 23 rift completed @ 12:32)

Check my profile for gear/build. When I first cleared that rift I was 3rd on the ladder and was previously 2nd for a brief period of time. I only had a weekend in between semesters though so I've fallen off quite a bit as I can't finish getting a few items I need like better rings(including a SoJ), better amulet, a ramalandi's gift so I can pimp out my Thunderfury. I've also been trying to level up legendary gems to see what works best for me in addition to Wreath of Lightning, which by the way, is absolutely mandatory for a lightning Wizard, imo.



Not having any means of self-healing is kind of halting me from progressing further as well. Will see what I can do with paragon points or possible LoH on a piece of gear.

In addition to Blessed Shield with Shattering throw use Shield Bash w/ Pound. It works very well. Before my Crusader died, I was critting for anywhere from 20mil to 26 mil on elites with Helm of Rule, Stone of Jordan, Justice Lantern, and a 17% Jekangbord. Punish buffs your block chance more, too, but turns into more damage for Blessed Shield and Shield Bash.



My skill build was:



Punish w/ Roar

Shield Bash w/ Pound

Steed Charge w/ Rejuvenation (found it necessary on hardcore)

Blessed Shield w/ Shattering Throw

Laws of Valor w/ Critical

Akarat's Champion w/ Rally



Renewal

Heavenly Strength

Hold Your Ground

Divine Fortress



Try it out, it's a lot of fun and I actually didn't miss having a skill like Heaven's Fury, Bombardment, Provoke, Condemn, etc instead of Shield Bash. Reaper's Wraps really helps this build, by the way. Try to get ones with both Holy damage and crit chance.

So I died on my borderline godlike Crusader about two or three days ago. It was my first serious hardcore character; my previous character was only a level 30 monk. I made it right when the expansion launched and had about 120 hours, give or take some. I wasn't going to make a thread, but changed my mind. I'm curious if anyone else has experienced a death like this.



Before I explain this, it's pretty important to note that there was no lag involved in this death, and I do not use Unity.



I was in a public T3 Rift with a full group of people. Everything was going fine. We started fighting a rare mob. After reflecting on it, I'm pretty sure it was either an Anarch or a Barbed Lurker. POSSIBLY an Exarch. Anyways, the elite was going down just fine, then about half way through(maybe?) my health started taking a nose-dive. I literally have never experienced anything like it before. I immediately Steed Charged out(with Rejuvenation on, so I did get some health back), yet my health was still dropping. I died after I had already gotten away from every other mob. I don't remember when I used my potion, but I believe it would've been right after my health started taking a nose-dive.



Like I said, I never experienced anything like that before on my crusader. After all, I was sitting at 875k damage with around 20% holy damage-ish and 30% elite damage, 17 mil toughness not including group buffs, and 74% block chance while in-combat. Jekangbord included.



I told a friend about it and he asked what kind of mob it was. I described it, even though I didn't have it narrowed down to the three I mentioned at the beginning of my post. He said he notices when fighting them sometimes that they'll do a spin of some sort and then a second later he'll start taking a lot of damage.



Anyone have any ideas? It felt like a very odd death.. and I'm a bit bummed out by it, but I've already continued on with my DH and a new Wizard. Maybe I'll make a new Crusader one day, but I really don't feel like farming another Justice Lantern on him. Hell, the one I had dropped for my Demon Hunter....

Edit, it'd probably be helpful to outline my skill build to bypass the potential Laws of Justice/Iron Skin questions:

Punish w/ Roar
Shield Bash w/ Pound

Steed Charge w/ Rejuvenation
Blessed Shield w/ Shattering Throw
Laws of Valor w/ Critical
Akarat's Champion w/ Rally

Renewal
Heavenly Strength
Hold Your Ground
Divine Fortress

I like that you're running Shield Bash with Pound. It's something that I've only recently found to be incredibly effective with my build. This isn't something you'll likely be able to run right off the bat, but I'm using a Helm of Rule, Justice Lantern, and Jekangbord. I sit at 59% block chance without Punish up(I also use the Roar rune for that, since my block chance is near capped with Punish).



Since I have Jekangbord, I really like using Blessed Shield with Shattering Throw. The problem I found was that by using that, I had poor single target damage. I realized that I was always switching out abilities in one slot because I was never happy with what I was using there, whether it was Heaven's Fury, Bombardment, or whatever else. On a whim I decided to try running two wrath spenders, so I put Shield Bash with Pound there and I absolutely love it. I thought I wouldn't like it because I'd be wrath starved, but that's not the case since they're used situationally.



The beauty of using both of those wrath spenders with the gear setup I have is that both of them scale with block chance, which I have plenty of. If you're curious as to the rest of my build, it's fairly standard:



Punish w/ Roar

Shield Bash w/ Pound

Steed Charge w/ the life regen rune

Blessed Shield w/ Shattering Throw

Laws of Valor w/ Critical

Akarat's Champion w/ Rally



With a Stone of Jordan, I've crit elites for anywhere between 18-22mil single target. If there's ever more than one target though, it's usually more efficient to spam Blessed Shield (obviously, with my setup).



For good measure, I sit at around 780k damage(self-buffed with Laws of Valor) and around 17 mil toughness(somewhat low on resists, though). Hope this helps.

Sweep Attack tends to be better than Blessed Hammer, actually. Hammer is better for clearing hordes of normal mobs while Sweep Attack does much more damage to elites/rares/bosses.



A build I sometimes use in hardcore includes Slash w/ Guard and Sweeping Attack w/ Blazing Sweep. The latter is probably the hardest hitting wrath spender aside from Heaven's Fury w/ whichever rune turns it into a wrath spender with no cooldown.

I would never get rid of Critical on Law of Valor with this build. The idea is to buff not only yourself but your party. Losing that 100% crit damage on everyone when you all have +80% crit chance is far from ideal. Wrathful has started feeling like it's not quite earning its spot, to be honest though. I should probably remove it, but I wanted to wait until I got Helm of Rule and/or Justice Lantern before swapping it out for the +15% block passive.



I have the shield Coven's Criterion which reduces damage from blocked attacks by 58%, but the shield only has a 22% block chance which would lower the bonus I receive from Divine Fortress by 8% from my current shield. It also has about 6k less block amount. Because of those two reasons, I really want the extra chance to block to make up for them.



The more I'm thinking about it though, it does make sense to get rid of Wrathful either way. It makes more sense to go for block chance for renewal heals compared to the 16k or so Wrathful will give you per Sweep. I'll update the guide.


@Leudine: I wrote out a response but the edit decided to glitch and not save it. So here's the shortened version of what I wrote.

• At this point you're being obtuse.
• I've said earlier, in this post, that I've begun to feel the effects of having Wrathful and have switched to Hold Your Ground, even though CURRENTLY the difference seems negligible and is hard to discern. Perhaps it will be more noticeable with Helm of Rule and/or Justice Lantern.
• I am not talking out of my ass. I've done plenty of testing.
• Akarat's procs plenty. Highly suspect you didn't completely read the original post still. Sweeping Attack with Blazing Sweep on multiple mobs procs Akarat's PLENTY to the point that I can easily chain cast the two spells.
• I find it laughable that you think Akarat's doesn't synergize well with the build.
• Again, obtuse.
• Replacing Critical for LoJ isn't needed and destroys the synergy of the build. Your entire party will miss out on the AS and crit damage. When you have Demon Hunters, Wizards, and Witch Doctors in your group with 800k+ damage, you lose out on a LOT of free damage and fast clear potential by taking LoJ. Especially when, with Judgement activated, everyone basically has guaranteed crits for the duration.
• Have you even tried the build? I doubt it.

Your suggestions nullify what the build is, man. There is a reason for why I chose everything that I chose -- this was not a thoughtless build. I tested out many combinations and this is the result of that testing.



Piling the monsters up is usually not an issue. As I said, many monks run cyclone strike and some wizards run black hole. Even if there isn't one of either of those, it still is never really an issue since you REALLY only want to use your cooldowns on elites/rares/bosses. Most elite packs tend to stay grouped together unless they're ranged mobs that like to run away. EVEN THOSE ONES are grouped initially and Judgement will root them in place.


I have a bit of a feeling you just glanced at the skill selection and didn't read any of the post. If that's the case, read the original post in its entirety and you'll find strong reasoning for WHY I chose what I chose. It's an amazing build.

As far as the block chance passive goes, I'm not interested in it at the moment personally. I've tried it out and I find my choices suit me better. My shield has a 30% block chance as it is. I've considered switching after I get Helm of Rule, but I'll have to wait and see.

Like I said, I highly prefer running Steed. I play on hardcore, and it has saved me from chain freeze bombs from multiple elite packs multiple times.

Also, this is a build that's solid on its own but excels in a group. A lot of monks run cyclone strike, which synergizes with this build.