Rating
+1

Hydrocalypse Hot Hit n Run

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Skills

  • Spectral Blade Flame Blades
  • Blizzard Apocalypse
  • Teleport Fracture
  • Familiar Sparkflint
  • Magic Weapon Ignite
  • Hydra Mammoth Hydra
  • Glass Cannon
  • Galvanizing Ward
  • Arcane Dynamo
  • Illusionist

Items

  • Head

    • Stat Priority: None
  • Shoulders

    • Stat Priority: None
  • Amulet

    • Stat Priority: None
  • Torso

    • Stat Priority: None
  • Wrists

    • Stat Priority: None
  • Hands

    • Stat Priority: None
  • Waist

    • Stat Priority: None
  • Legs

    • Stat Priority: None
  • Feet

    • Stat Priority: None
  • Rings

    • Stat Priority: None
  • Weapon

  • Offhand

    • Stat Priority: None
  • Legendary Gems

    • Bane of the Powerful
    • Simplicity's Strength
    • No Gem Selected
Serpent's Sparker is the only required item really. I could imagine this build working without this item but to be honest it is no fun without the Sparker.

Get as much attack speed as possible for the hydras to be as effective as possible.
Get as much fire skill damage as possible.

Firebird 6piece bonus is ideal but I am currently (as of writing this) using only 2 pieces and I'm playing on Torment 3 without trouble. Hopefully I will get the 6piece bonus soon.

Toughness is more important than Recovery. Will be explained in Build Description section.

Just get one or two items that give Arcane Power regeneration and then you won't ever need to worry about resource. This build uses almost no resources and you never run out of it.

Paragon Priorities

Core

Primary Stat
Vitality
Movement Speed
Maximum Resource

Offense

Attack Speed
Cooldown Reduction
Critical Hit Chance
Critical Hit Damage

Defense

Life
Armor
Resist All
Life Regeneration

Utility

Area Damage
Resource Cost Reduction
Life on Hit
Gold Find
Core: Get full movement speed first, whether it's from items or paragon points, then just go for primary stat.

Movement Speed > Intellect > Vitality > Maximum Resource

Offense: Attack Speed, then mix crit chance and damage equally.

Attack Speed > Crit Chance = Crit Damage > Cooldown Reduction

Defense: Resist All >=Armour. Get something like 1000 in all resistances, then go for Armour.

Resist All > Armor > Life Regeneration = Life

Utility: Nothing here is that great but Area Damage has the most potential.

Area Damage > The other three. If you play the build right, you won't even need Life on Hit, but get it if you are not entirely sure, otherwise just get Gold Find, rofl!

Build Guide

This build is kind of obscure as far as I'm aware. It's all about using hydra, apocalypse (Blizzard) and blending your foes with fiery spectral blades, it's about going into melee range, punch them in the face a few times, then run away again.

Skills

Spectral Blades, Flame Blades - Main attack used as much as possible (yes it's a primary skill, keep reading ;D )

Hydra, Mammoth and Blizzard, Apocalypse - These skills attack for you automatically so you can focus on kiting more. These skills will be cast together, always, in any mob encounter. This will be explained later on.

Teleport, I chose Fracture because it allows you to fight in melee for slightly longer, building up Flame Blades damage, but any rune will do I guess.

Familiar, Sparkflint - It just does damage for you which is worth it if you cast spells often (which you should do) and boosts your damage overall as well. Not reason not to use it!

Magic Weapon, Ignite - It's quite a lot of fire damage over a short amount of time and is boosted by Fire Damage stats from items. Good against bosses particularly.

How to play

First thing before anything is to cast Familiar and Magic Weapon.

Whenever any monster of any kind enters your screen, use Blizzard, then cast your two Hydras. These are the most important attacks as they will attack automatically for you. If you believe you can survive for a few seconds, jump in, attack with Spectral Blades to build up the fire damage (thanks to the Flame Blades rune) then teleport away. Against bosses or powerful elites, don't use Spectral Blades, just run around and make sure the boss/elite walks in the Hydra's river of flame on the ground.

Basic Rotation

1) Blizzard
2) Hydra x2
3) Spectral Blade for as long as you can survive
4) Teleport away, wait for Galvanizing Ward to reset
5) Repeat

This rotation may vary depending on elite affixes and which boss you are fighting, but just use your instincts, it doesn't require much thought :)

Why these passive skills?

Arcane Dynamo - You will be using your primary skill (Spectral Blades) as the most frequently used skill (Simplicity's Strength legendary gem is amazing). I recommend that you use your 5 stacks on Blizzard, rather than Hydra as most fights last less than the duration of a hydra, therefore Blizzard gets the damage boost.

Illusionist - Just incredible for tight situations, the main life-saver. If your teleport range isn't long enough, this passive will save your ass countless times.

Glass Cannon - More damage

Galvanizing Ward - This is the reason Toughness is more important than Recovery. Healing only heals health, not this energy shield. Like I said earlier, you jump in, attack a few times, then run. Your galvanizing ward heals itself after 5 seconds of receiving no damage so you can jump back in and attack more if you like.

Don't get me wrong, if you feel that you need healing (which isn't necessarily bad to have) then do it but I encourage you to try without it so you can focus more stats on toughness and damage.

Things I need to say

I kind of created this build by accident. I originally wanted it to be a meteor build that follows the traditional "use arcane spender until you run out of arcane power, use primary skill until you have arcane power" kind of recipe. There is nothing wrong with that but I did want to try something different for once. I'm quite happy with this build for the moment. As of writing this I have played my wizard for around 20 hours after hitting level 70 and I can play torment 3 with this build and my current gear.

Bear in mind that my gear is quite nooby. As mentioned in the gear section, using full Firebird set is the most ideal for this fire build, but I only have 2 pieces and Royal Ring of Grandeur. I estimate that if my current gear instantly upgraded to 5 pieces of Firebird (plus royal ring) I could easily manage torment 5, maybe 6. One could argue that this build will never reach torment 6 because other builds are just more powerful, but with such nooby gear that I have currently playing Torment 3, there is so much space to upgrade and eventually reach torment 6. In the end it's just about what you think is the most fun, and I find this build fun and that is why I shared it.

My build is quite defensive, but I'm an ex-hardcore player so there may be no death penalty, but the less I die, the easier it is on my conscience ;)

I hope I didn't leave anything out... If you like this build or have an idea to improve this build, do let me know :)

Here is my actual profile on the Blizzard domain, the character is non-hardcore wizard female called Charr.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Bullerick-2906/hero/35695025