So, since I dinged 70 on my Wizard I decided to make a melee build since I always liked melee wizards. It took some tries but I think this might the most viable melee wizard build because of the simple fact that you do not require any healing with all the shields.
You play this build by facetanking everything and attack them with Spectral Blade, when you have 5 stacks of Arcane Dynamo use Arcane Orbit for extra damage and that's basically it. No need to get Apoc or anything because you will never run out of Arcane Power.
You should build your character around Spectral Blade damage, the items that can have Spectral Blade damage is:
Belt
Pants
Source
Fragment of Destiny (Legendary wand)
The highest +dmg you can have on Spectral Blade is 75%, plus the extra arcane damage increase from neck, bracers and Stone of Jordan which raises the total highest +dmg on Spectral Blade to 135%.
Basic stats you should aim for:
All resist
Armor
Critical Hit Damage
Critical Hit Chance
Arcane Damage
Spectral Blade Damage
Primary Spells:
Spectral Blade: Barrier Blades
This is going to be your main damage ability, with enough armor and resist the shield from Barrier Blades and Deflection will negate almost all damage you take, your HP won't move at all unless you face strong elite packs.
Arcane Orb: Arcane Orbit
Use this everytime you have 5 stacks of Arcane Dynamo, nice extra damage and since you will be in melee range it will alwaysexplode on enemies.
Other vital spells: Magic Weapon: Deflection
This will help your Barrier Blades a lot, every attack you do will give you a shield.
Energy Armor: Prismatic Armor
Since this build relies on absorbs you will need the damage reduction, the more damage reduction you have the stronger your shields will be.
Free to change spells: Archon: Improved Archon
I use this because the damage is sick, I can easily burn down 3 elite packs at once.
Feel free to change this to whatever you like, Black Hole is just as viable as this is.
A good replacement could be Diamond Skin, especially if you lack damage reduction.
Familiar: Sparkflint
I use this because of the extra damage, but once again take whatever floats your boat.
Passives: Arcane Dynamo
Vital because of the damage increase on Arcane Orbit, 60% extra damage is HUGE.
Blur
Vital because of the damage reduction, no melee wizard can play without it.
Galvanizing Ward
Not vital but highly recommended, the shield is huge and it will definitely help you against the stronger elite packs.
Audacity
Not vital but highly recommended, damage boosts are always nice and this is the only damage boost that doesn't rely on using different elements or remove a lot of damage reduction.
Well, Spectral Blade damage and Arcane damage is vital, then like everything else in this game you need as much CHD and CHC you can get, Attack Speed will help you restore your shields faster and of course the more damage reduction you have the stronger your shields will get, all resist is great.
If you can't find Arcane or Spectral Blade damage gear, just aim for simple CHC,CHD,Int and All resist. But you will deal less damage because Spectral Blades have a low damage modifier.
The shield from spectral Blades only absords very little damage. Every mob on lvl 70 hits harder than that, hence the shield never has more than a stack for me. Why you don't use the most important passive for a build like this? DOMINANCE, this shit has saved my ass a thounsand times and except for bosses this will always have many stacks. Galvanizing Wards is of very little use anyways because it will only activate in the time you run from one pack to the next.
Imho a melee build only works well with abilities that can stun.
That's why you stack damage reduction, on Torment 1 the mobs can never destroy my shields, Dominance only works when you kill mobs all the time, but when you face an elite pack or a boss it's useless. I only have 8.7million toughness atm, 6586 armor and 1500-1700 resist, that's very little, I can get more but right now my gear doesn't allow it.
The only time my Galvanizing Ward drops is against strong elite packs like molten+fire chains at the same time or if I stand inside an arcane beam.
You get 16k absorb shield everytime you attack, and with enough damage reduction that absorb shield is enough.
Since Dominance only works when you kill white mobs it's shitty because those white mobs will NEVER destroy the 16k shield from Deflection and Barrier Blades.
Have you thought of using explosive blast instead of familiar or archon? It shall give nice aoe boost.
Yes, it's nice but I prefer Archon for the burst damage and I like familiar because of the 10% damage and familiar crits 1.5 million for me so familiar does nice single target dmg as well.
But Familiar and Archon are free to change, they are not vital for the build to work so just go with what you like
So, since I dinged 70 on my Wizard I decided to make a melee build since I always liked melee wizards. It took some tries but I think this might the most viable melee wizard build because of the simple fact that you do not require any healing with all the shields.
You play this build by facetanking everything and attack them with Spectral Blade, when you have 5 stacks of Arcane Dynamo use Arcane Orbit for extra damage and that's basically it. No need to get Apoc or anything because you will never run out of Arcane Power.
You should build your character around Spectral Blade damage, the items that can have Spectral Blade damage is:
Belt
Pants
Source
Fragment of Destiny (Legendary wand)
The highest +dmg you can have on Spectral Blade is 75%, plus the extra arcane damage increase from neck, bracers and Stone of Jordan which raises the total highest +dmg on Spectral Blade to 135%.
Basic stats you should aim for:
All resist
Armor
Critical Hit Damage
Critical Hit Chance
Arcane Damage
Spectral Blade Damage
Primary Spells:
Spectral Blade: Barrier Blades
This is going to be your main damage ability, with enough armor and resist the shield from Barrier Blades and Deflection will negate almost all damage you take, your HP won't move at all unless you face strong elite packs.
Arcane Orb: Arcane Orbit
Use this everytime you have 5 stacks of Arcane Dynamo, nice extra damage and since you will be in melee range it will alwaysexplode on enemies.
Other vital spells:
Magic Weapon: Deflection
This will help your Barrier Blades a lot, every attack you do will give you a shield.
Energy Armor: Prismatic Armor
Since this build relies on absorbs you will need the damage reduction, the more damage reduction you have the stronger your shields will be.
Free to change spells:
Archon: Improved Archon
I use this because the damage is sick, I can easily burn down 3 elite packs at once.
Feel free to change this to whatever you like, Black Hole is just as viable as this is.
A good replacement could be Diamond Skin, especially if you lack damage reduction.
Familiar: Sparkflint
I use this because of the extra damage, but once again take whatever floats your boat.
Passives:
Arcane Dynamo
Vital because of the damage increase on Arcane Orbit, 60% extra damage is HUGE.
Blur
Vital because of the damage reduction, no melee wizard can play without it.
Galvanizing Ward
Not vital but highly recommended, the shield is huge and it will definitely help you against the stronger elite packs.
Audacity
Not vital but highly recommended, damage boosts are always nice and this is the only damage boost that doesn't rely on using different elements or remove a lot of damage reduction.
If you can't find Arcane or Spectral Blade damage gear, just aim for simple CHC,CHD,Int and All resist. But you will deal less damage because Spectral Blades have a low damage modifier.
The only time my Galvanizing Ward drops is against strong elite packs like molten+fire chains at the same time or if I stand inside an arcane beam.
You get 16k absorb shield everytime you attack, and with enough damage reduction that absorb shield is enough.
Since Dominance only works when you kill white mobs it's shitty because those white mobs will NEVER destroy the 16k shield from Deflection and Barrier Blades.
Yes, it's nice but I prefer Archon for the burst damage and I like familiar because of the 10% damage and familiar crits 1.5 million for me so familiar does nice single target dmg as well.
But Familiar and Archon are free to change, they are not vital for the build to work so just go with what you like