8 replies to this topic

[teoteodore]

I'm in my mid-30s and entering ACT2/Nightmare, so I haven't faced too many challenges.

1.  Does it make sense to specialize in one elemental damage?  It seems that many skills and passives amplify a single elemental damage.  Lightning/electrocute is my favorite with Electrocute primary, Lightning Hydra, Storm Armor, Magic Weapon.  Even weapons can specify +elemental damage.

2.  I assume and have read that as a kiting Wizard, that LoH is of limited value and it's better to stack Life Regen, true?

3.  Talking about kiting, I'm developing the habit of using hydra and blizzard immediately even with white mobs ... sometimes it seems silly.  My fingers get ahead of me, and before I know it, there's a hydra and blizzard on top of one poor little mob and I'm off the screen --- lol.  Do you guys test the limits of standing and fighting rather than running right away?  Popping Diamond Skin seems cowardly.

4.  I'm assuming, as a kiter dependent on blizzard and hydra to do the real damage, that a 2H with high initial weapon damage is the best choice, right?

[Loroese]

1) It doesn't really matter if you specialize in all of one type of damage. There's not really any bonuses aside from maybe going all cold at 60 with frostburn gloves (if they fix them, since I heard they're bugged and don't work properly) or from all lightning for stun procs with whatever passive adds stun chance. Temporal Flux with a couple arcane damage types is nice at 60 but most people only use 2-3 damage spells then anyway.

2) Yes, LoH is pretty bad for kiting wizard. Life steal is semi-useful and likely superior to LoH while Life Regen is, imo, very good for kiting. However, you shouldn't really need to worry about it until 60 as just stacking INT+VIT goes a long ways while leveling, and life regen gets better the less HP you have.

3) I spent all of normal and nightmare just standing in place and nuking things with disinitegrate or arcane torrent. It wasn't until halfway through Hell that I switched to a kite spec. Still, there's nothing wrong with getting the hang of it early, aside from possibly getting really tired of it by the time you get to inferno.

4) I prefer a 2h when using blizzard and arcane orb because it makes them do more damage per cast, but since blizzard isn't really meant for damage you can really use whichever you prefer. Some prefer 1h+OH because of the faster attack animation making for easier stutter stepping while kiting. If I were leveling all over again I'd likely just stick with a 2h until I got enough dps and life steal at 60 to switch to Archon since attack animation speed was never much of an issue for me.

[kraal]

A few answers, as I continue playing and enjoying blizz/hydra even at high-end DPS:
1) No.
"adds %elemental damage" is a very badly worded affix on items. It doesn't add a bonus to elemental damage, instead it adds an elemental damage component from your physical damage. So no, imho it doesn't make sense.
Some rare items really have a bonus TO elemental damage (Frostburn gauntlets, Fragment of Destiny) but they are still inferior to their generalist counterparts.

On the Passive side of things, Paralysis is currently uneffective, Conflagration makes use of Fire element, which we practically don't have. Cold blooded is good, either with Blizzard or with a Cold bow scoundrel follower.


So you can imagine a cold build with Ray of Frost, Fragment of Destiny wand and Frostburns, but it's more of a roleplay kind of things.
I prefer specializing in my signature of choice (Electrocute/FL) with a 12% SoJ and 14% helm.

2) True.
LoH returns life based on a coefficient per spell called "proc coefficient", mainly because it's the same number that is used to trigger Critical Mass. Blizz/Hydra and signature have very bad coefficients. Plus, anytime you spend moving and not casting, you won't get any life. So, go for regen if you play Blizz/hydra.

3) Yes.
With some DPS, you'll be able to kill most white mobs with your signature alone before they even touch you, standing still. Pop Diamond skin when they reach you, as it is "off cast" and doesn't interrupt your casting.
Harder mobs and elites get the Blizz/hydra treatment. For kiting, pre-teleport just before they reach you, then diamond skin when they reach you again to take the hit and trigger illusionnist+tp, then take the next hit in your life pool, illusionnist+tp.
The goal is to maximize your signature casting time. You can add "stutter stepping" to the mix.

4)Imho, no.
Kiters need to cast fast, to allow stutter stepping and reactive tp. And most your damage should come from the signature, that directly benefits from your casting speed. By the way, hydra also benefits from it.

Edited by kraal, 09 October 2012 - 02:23 PM.

[kraal]

Double posting, but on topic and wizards should now: Frostburn "Cold skills deal +% dmg" affix is bugged, and I suspect it is also bugged on other similar items (Tal set maybe ?).
Blue post: http://us.battle.net...04194?page=2#25

[teoteodore]

Since my post has been re-awakened, it seems it does make sense afterall to specialize as a 'cold' wizard or 'fire' wizard and to build your skills and gear around that.  At least, once Blizzard gets the affixes to proc correctly again.  And while we're on the topic, do these affixes apply to the overall DPS or just to the basic weapon damage?  As an example, if I were to build a frost wizard that did all damage as cold with a published rate of 100,000DPS, would adding an item that increases cold damage by 20% mean I'd be doing 120,000DPS?

Edited by teoteodore, 11 October 2012 - 02:39 PM.

[Loroese]

teoteodore, on 11 October 2012 - 02:32 PM, said:

Since my post has been re-awakened, it seems it does make sense afterall to specialize as a 'cold' wizard or 'fire' wizard and to build your skills and gear around that.  At least, once Blizzard gets the affixes to proc correctly again.  And while we're on the topic, do these affixes apply to the overall DPS or just to the basic weapon damage?  As an example, if I were to build a frost wizard that did all damage as cold with a published rate of 100,000DPS, would adding an item that increases cold damage by 20% mean I'd be doing 120,000DPS?

I think that's how the extra damage will work. I'm not 100% sure but I believe sources of bonus damage of different types are all multiplicative. The different types are flat bonus damage (like glass cannon, flintspark, and magic weapon), bonus damage vs elites, bonus damage to frozen mobs, bonus damage to certain elemental skills, etc. At least I'm pretty sure the first 3 types are all multiplicative of each other (though additive inside each group, so you add all flat bonus damage and multiply dps by that, add all bonus damage vs elites, and multiply by that, etc.). Also, the dps gain will not show up on your character sheet since it only applies in certain situations (even if it applies to all your damage skills).

[Dr_Killiinger]

high dps and life steal

[Cyber561]

yup! I prefer the same Faithful

[Bagstone]