So, like many others, I was using the WindupWizard(CM-Wicked Wind-Exploding Blast) build before the patch to great effect(mostly farming act 2 with ease).
After the patch i have seen a few posts here and there of people claiming that this build is still viable. So this post has 2 purposes.
1. If you are still using the CM-WW-EB build effectively, what are your stats?(Crit%, Crit damage, AP on Crit, LOH, Resistances). This would be very useful to anyone looking to keep using that build, but don't know what to prioritize since we have to be a lot smarter with it now.
2. If you are using a different variant of the CRITICAL MASS build(uses CM to refresh CD on Diamond Skin and Frost Nova very rapidly) post your build and your stats (Crit%, Crit damage, AP on Crit, LOH, Resistances) so people who still are looking to play this style have something to shoot for.
Personally, I have switched to Arcane Orb/Hydra/Seeker with temporal flux and have been back to kiting the hell out of everything(with some success), but I do miss my Windup Wizard(not the biggest fan of kiting) and would like to know what it would take to make it viable again.
I can still farm all of A2, and am doing just fine in A3. I was one of the paranoid ones that the nerf was going to kill this build, but for me it still works fine, to my surprise. Using standard Wicked Wind/Critical Mass/Fracture/Chain reaction/Prismatic or force armor/Frost nova. About 40% crit chance and just over 200%dmg.
*edit* Here's my gear . Its in my Signature to, but figured I'd be explicit
I only tried it for a few minutes after the patch but I found using the same spec as before the patch worked fine with 42.5% crit, 20 APoC with shield, and just under 900 LoH. As someone recommended, you might want to increase your LoH a bit though since the WW nerf applies to LoH also but WW is still arguably the best skill in our arsenal to proc CM because you can get as many as 24 tics per cast.
That said I went back to my kiting spec and actually prefer it, but my CM gear isn't nearly as good. 520k EHP (570 if I drop glass cannon, and yes, I was trying glass cannon since it was decent DPS increase and didn't hurt my survival all that much), around 880 LoH, 19k DPS for reference.
Here is my critical mass build, so far it owns Act 1 and 2 Inferno.
PS: 38% crit / 19.8 dps / with prismatic 800+ to all resists / 28.9k life
Key is slow time w/ time warp rune for extra 20% + cold blooded for 20%+bone chill for 15% dmg to frozen. In total when they are all up you get 55% damage to all.
so a couple of people have touched on this here and there - best thing you can do is swap out your Wicked Wind rune for Storm Chaser - and yes - even in melee - keep everything else the same...
Right now, it looks like 40% Crit Chance is the number to get to - however, another stat has been creeping up more and more - Attack Speed... If you can get your attack speed approaching 2.0 attacks per seconds - you'll notice this build working like it used to (even to some extend with wicked wind)
The thing with Storm Chaser is that it appears that the proc coefficient of this rune has NOT been reduced - we're not sure if this is working as intended or not - but until we hear otherwise from Blizzard - this is what we can work with. The actual ability of the rune itself goes wasted (since we're not using a primary ability in the basic CM build) but that doesn't matter to us, because we like the higher proc coefficient on Storm Chaser...
And I'll continue to stand by using Teleport with Wormhole - it makes for much faster farming, as well as getting out of bad situations during a fight - and you almost always have it available to work with.
so a couple of people have touched on this here and there - best thing you can do is swap out your Wicked Wind rune for Storm Chaser - and yes - even in melee - keep everything else the same...
Right now, it looks like 40% Crit Chance is the number to get to - however, another stat has been creeping up more and more - Attack Speed... If you can get your attack speed approaching 2.0 attacks per seconds - you'll notice this build working like it used to (even to some extend with wicked wind)
The thing with Storm Chaser is that it appears that the proc coefficient of this rune has NOT been reduced - we're not sure if this is working as intended or not - but until we hear otherwise from Blizzard - this is what we can work with. The actual ability of the rune itself goes wasted (since we're not using a primary ability in the basic CM build) but that doesn't matter to us, because we like the higher proc coefficient on Storm Chaser...
And I'll continue to stand by using Teleport with Wormhole - it makes for much faster farming, as well as getting out of bad situations during a fight - and you almost always have it available to work with.
Good luck and happy hunting
what he said, remember exactly same build with storm chaser isntead of ww, I have been running with storm armor myself for more facemelting cheese, enjoy it while it lasts cuz its not gonna stay for long, you have been warned, just so people know this rune(storm chaser) actually has now a higher coefficient than ww ever had.
iam going to use that other rune tomorror - and ill think it will be awesome
edit : i updated my gear ( helm is new .. ) so its + 7 AP on crit and +0.5% crit
u just need to cast moar WW twisters .. so get more ap on crit and its just like before.
i will get moar ap on crit on weapon now, then it should just get ridiculous ...
the new helm reduced my all res and amor a little and i switched from glascannon to astral presence.
all in all a net loss of 10k dps ( to 40k) , but its actually faster than before , because i can spam moar spells:)
Storm chaser has me on full AP 100% of the time, 17 AP on crit, 39% crit chance. It's interesting they nerfed one proc and left the other, probably an oversight.
Also, is it just me or have they hotfixed the CM/WW build somewhere this week? Untill monday i was able to kill everything in a3 and tank it at the same time, even facetanking Ghom wasnt a problem. (This is all after 1.0.4, with the new WW type where you can stack 3 and cast a signature spell to gain a 4th faster one)
Then suddenly i kept dying all the time.
I decided to upgrade my wand (got a nice 870dps with 95x lifesteal) and up my resist to 750-800+ unbuffed.. And still im getting oneshotted!
I must say im quite low on VIT (18.9k hp) but just half a week ago i had +- 16-17k, less damage, less resist and i was able to do act 3 like a bulldozer!
Did you try force armor instead (I am assuming you are using Prismatic)? Your hp is too low imo, and even with 1k AR you should get some nasty hits sometimes using prismatic. Remember that the ET procs were cut in half and this affects LoH too.
I am trying to get a new wand and a socketed storm crow, but the patch is still fresh and the values are too damn high!
i've got 19k +- . so i need 11k more..thats 10points per vit spend, so i roughly need 1100 more vit points? That sounds like ALOT of vit..
Was hoping i could get a ring with 110 vit to get there. I woulve been able to get a good Int+vit+AR ring to replace my int-ar-crit chance, since ive got 60% crit, 55 should be enough.
1 vit = 35 hp so you only need around 300 or so extra vit to get +11k hp. Actually, I don't think hp matters as much as EHP, which takes armor and resistances into account to calculate your effective HP. With that said, Vit is the cheapest way to boost EHP but raising EHP with armor and resistances makes DS more useful so a balance is preferable, especially with CM "tanks". I think a good value to aim for is 400-500k for Act 3 at a min, with Prismatic Armor. More is better and makes life easier but that value should make the act doable. Whether you reach that value with 20k hp or 50k hp, it doesn't really matter, it'll still take the same number of hits to kill you.
Also, is it just me or have they hotfixed the CM/WW build somewhere this week? Untill monday i was able to kill everything in a3 and tank it at the same time, even facetanking Ghom wasnt a problem. (This is all after 1.0.4, with the new WW type where you can stack 3 and cast a signature spell to gain a 4th faster one)
Then suddenly i kept dying all the time.
I decided to upgrade my wand (got a nice 870dps with 95x lifesteal) and up my resist to 750-800+ unbuffed.. And still im getting oneshotted!
I must say im quite low on VIT (18.9k hp) but just half a week ago i had +- 16-17k, less damage, less resist and i was able to do act 3 like a bulldozer!
so, your stats are close to mine, except your AR is 80 points higher. And you say you can run around w/o the resist buff that prismatic gives? cause, if that storm armor build kills faster, i want to try it.
here's my hero: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/heavymetal-1322/hero/3153312
i've got 19k +- . so i need 11k more..thats 10points per vit spend, so i roughly need 1100 more vit points? That sounds like ALOT of vit..
Was hoping i could get a ring with 110 vit to get there. I woulve been able to get a good Int+vit+AR ring to replace my int-ar-crit chance, since ive got 60% crit, 55 should be enough.
1 vit = 35 hp so you only need around 300 or so extra vit to get +11k hp. Actually, I don't think hp matters as much as EHP, which takes armor and resistances into account to calculate your effective HP. With that said, Vit is the cheapest way to boost EHP but raising EHP with armor and resistances makes DS more useful so a balance is preferable, especially with CM "tanks". I think a good value to aim for is 400-500k for Act 3 at a min, with Prismatic Armor. More is better and makes life easier but that value should make the act doable. Whether you reach that value with 20k hp or 50k hp, it doesn't really matter, it'll still take the same number of hits to kill you.
you arent wrong about this, but i think last time i calculated my ehp it was between 300-350K. Only thing i changed was my helm to add additional APoC after the patch. I'm doing fine still. There will always be affixes on elites that just destroy you for no apparent reason, but i do fine otherwise.
Mmmm i don't get it, from what I read, SC gives you the 3 charges that you need to realease, if not it does nothing right?
It's all about the rune's coefficient. That coefficient is what determines LoH gains and CM proc rates, and it's a fairly high coefficient, reportedly.
i use a wiz with 18k dps, 1.2k int and vit, 1100 all resist with prismatic armor, because i play only with teams and usually have 1 or 2 high dps like dhs and a monk or barbarian with increase armor skills, then i dont have problems when i farm act 3 or 4.. this low dps its because i have a mf gear pre 1.04 (i bought 1 day before upgrade - #$%@), so if u have a low dps, upgrade your vit and resist all
the link is: us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Ping3450-1417/hero/17327933
After the patch i have seen a few posts here and there of people claiming that this build is still viable. So this post has 2 purposes.
1. If you are still using the CM-WW-EB build effectively, what are your stats?(Crit%, Crit damage, AP on Crit, LOH, Resistances). This would be very useful to anyone looking to keep using that build, but don't know what to prioritize since we have to be a lot smarter with it now.
2. If you are using a different variant of the CRITICAL MASS build(uses CM to refresh CD on Diamond Skin and Frost Nova very rapidly) post your build and your stats (Crit%, Crit damage, AP on Crit, LOH, Resistances) so people who still are looking to play this style have something to shoot for.
Personally, I have switched to Arcane Orb/Hydra/Seeker with temporal flux and have been back to kiting the hell out of everything(with some success), but I do miss my Windup Wizard(not the biggest fan of kiting) and would like to know what it would take to make it viable again.
*edit* Here's my gear . Its in my Signature to, but figured I'd be explicit
That said I went back to my kiting spec and actually prefer it, but my CM gear isn't nearly as good. 520k EHP (570 if I drop glass cannon, and yes, I was trying glass cannon since it was decent DPS increase and didn't hurt my survival all that much), around 880 LoH, 19k DPS for reference.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
Right now, it looks like 40% Crit Chance is the number to get to - however, another stat has been creeping up more and more - Attack Speed... If you can get your attack speed approaching 2.0 attacks per seconds - you'll notice this build working like it used to (even to some extend with wicked wind)
The thing with Storm Chaser is that it appears that the proc coefficient of this rune has NOT been reduced - we're not sure if this is working as intended or not - but until we hear otherwise from Blizzard - this is what we can work with. The actual ability of the rune itself goes wasted (since we're not using a primary ability in the basic CM build) but that doesn't matter to us, because we like the higher proc coefficient on Storm Chaser...
And I'll continue to stand by using Teleport with Wormhole - it makes for much faster farming, as well as getting out of bad situations during a fight - and you almost always have it available to work with.
Good luck and happy hunting
when iam there - iam pretty sure ill be facerolling everything again. (1000 all res, 800 loh, 50kdps)
heres my champ: http://eu.battle.net...532/hero/120019
iam going to use that other rune tomorror - and ill think it will be awesome
edit : i updated my gear ( helm is new .. ) so its + 7 AP on crit and +0.5% crit
u just need to cast moar WW twisters .. so get more ap on crit and its just like before.
i will get moar ap on crit on weapon now, then it should just get ridiculous ...
the new helm reduced my all res and amor a little and i switched from glascannon to astral presence.
all in all a net loss of 10k dps ( to 40k) , but its actually faster than before , because i can spam moar spells:)
You may test it out with Slow Time/stretch time to see the difference. Deep freeze will help too with both dmg and crit chance.
I was only running 9ApoC i was doing fine. Probably due to fact that I'm only using Energy Twister. (I don't use explosive blast).
upgraded my gear a little ... its totally ridiculous now. allthough investment was 250 mio...
dropping frostnova for even moar damage sounds fun .. i might try that its 75k with force weapon i think
Did you try force armor instead (I am assuming you are using Prismatic)? Your hp is too low imo, and even with 1k AR you should get some nasty hits sometimes using prismatic. Remember that the ET procs were cut in half and this affects LoH too.
I am trying to get a new wand and a socketed storm crow, but the patch is still fresh and the values are too damn high!
1 vit = 35 hp so you only need around 300 or so extra vit to get +11k hp. Actually, I don't think hp matters as much as EHP, which takes armor and resistances into account to calculate your effective HP. With that said, Vit is the cheapest way to boost EHP but raising EHP with armor and resistances makes DS more useful so a balance is preferable, especially with CM "tanks". I think a good value to aim for is 400-500k for Act 3 at a min, with Prismatic Armor. More is better and makes life easier but that value should make the act doable. Whether you reach that value with 20k hp or 50k hp, it doesn't really matter, it'll still take the same number of hits to kill you.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
so, your stats are close to mine, except your AR is 80 points higher. And you say you can run around w/o the resist buff that prismatic gives? cause, if that storm armor build kills faster, i want to try it.
here's my hero: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/heavymetal-1322/hero/3153312
http://us.battle.net...22/hero/3153312 (wiz)
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/heavymetal-1322/hero/8654665 (monk)
my twitch feed (just messing around, no super player or anything)
http://www.justin.tv/heavymetalmak
you arent wrong about this, but i think last time i calculated my ehp it was between 300-350K. Only thing i changed was my helm to add additional APoC after the patch. I'm doing fine still. There will always be affixes on elites that just destroy you for no apparent reason, but i do fine otherwise.
And the EHP Calculator does help people, use it.
http://us.battle.net...22/hero/3153312 (wiz)
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/heavymetal-1322/hero/8654665 (monk)
my twitch feed (just messing around, no super player or anything)
http://www.justin.tv/heavymetalmak
It's all about the rune's coefficient. That coefficient is what determines LoH gains and CM proc rates, and it's a fairly high coefficient, reportedly.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
No die, no problem. Btw, shield (with crit) is better than sources for survival.
the link is: us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Ping3450-1417/hero/17327933