I've been playing a Wizard since RoS launch, prior to which I played a Barbarian exclusively. I was told by a clan mate when I started to go for Arcane Orb - Frozen Orb build which I follow still. Since then I progressed to T2 but seem to have hit a brick wall. T3 seems to make me a bit too squishy and the DPS not as efficient. I was told that this is the 'limitation' of FO build now : S.
I would like to know if this is still the way to go? If not, Could someone tell me the recommended build for getting up to T5-6 which is what I want to be farming efficiently. Additionally, the gear required please :). Here is my toon.
Now I don't play a wizard, but a few members of my clan do, and as far as I'm concerned a fire build is the best way to progress into T6. IIRC they said the high priority items were Cindercoat, Mirrorball, and a Fire affix Andariel's Visage for starters
Swap cains legs and vyrs gloves for ashearas set. This leaves your helm free for Andariels. Sure the MF is fun but meh. +XP% from gear is additive and therefore fucking useless (you get 1150% from t5, 1200 isn't that much more...)
Until you get the Andariels, the Ashearas 4 set is amazing for survivability as it has a very high uptime (like, I rarely ever find myself in combat and not with my followers) and adds damage too. Ofc it means gearing your followers but its not really very hard. On top of being 3 seperate targets for the enemy; the buffs hey provide (crit, AS, armour, resource regen) ontop of the heals and hexes and charms... That set jumped me from t2 to t4 in one fell swoop.
Actually I think cold is viable. There are several posts that talk about a Ray of Frost build that can do those higher torments. However, that build hinges around Light of Grace. I gambled one and tried it, but it was just okay for me personally. I had to give up my 4pc tal set bonus because my third tal piece is the source. It definitely wasn't worth losing tal set bonus, but if I can ever find a tal helm (amulet to a lesser extent) I will give it a shot again. Black ice and cold damage amplification sounds promising, especially if you have things like thunderfury giving you added elemental damage to trigger meteors. So, imo, cold IS viable, but requires a LOT of specific gear (light of grace + tal set for added dps).
I was in the exact same spot as you a few weeks ago. I had spent a lot of time not being able to really progress past t1/t2 with frozen orb. I was mainly irritated with frozen orb because you have to place that orb in the right spot for explosions and I felt like I was running away from mobs too often. I wanted a different playstyle. I started collecting arcane % gear and ended up just going arcane / disintegrate (all rares minus a decent andariel's btw). I tried stacking mitigation but I wasn't able to break through the t3 difficulty easily even then. Then I crafted Aughild's set and that was the ticket. Once I used the shoulders/bracers for the Aughild's set and rerolled other pieces for higher armor/all res, I could do t3/t4. I still prefer t3 as I can face tank and run with glass cannon, so for speed it's better, but I have better gear now. If you don't have the gear, prismatic armor run is the way to go and that helped me break the t3 barrier.
TLDR: Aughild's set is amazing. Energy Armor / Prismatic rune is amazing. Those two pieces really let me push into t3. Cold is viable, but I like arcane playstyle.
You can farm forever and not see any of the items mentioned above. There is absolutely no point in making a list of items you want to get and waiting for them to drop. They might never drop and you might get super frustrated (I did the mistake and told myself to get any wizard set for the 500 int bonus, not gotten any 2 items of any wizard set so far after a loooot of playing, so ultimately I'm feeling a bit frustrated now).
Also, you cannot aim for a build unless you have the items for it. Look at all the items that you have and create a build around it. I disagree with the notion of "go fire everything else is crap". Many, if not most, end-game wizards play arcane, and there are viable frost and lightning builds (some of them in the build section). It all comes down to the items you have, and the skills you like.
So, based on your gear I'd have gone for exactly the same build that you chose, with one exception: Prodigy. MM with Mirrorball is such a huge DPS spell that Prodigy is unnecessary; go Blur for extra survivability or Audacity for extra DPS. In terms of getting more survivability on gear Helycon already mentioned everything there is to say.
Focus on mitigation, if necessary you can drop some HP. I'd ditch the Cain helmet (extremely low rolls and socket is useless compared to, for example, allres) and possibly even Firebird's set (you don't need cooldown reduction and resource cost reduction with your build, and MS on boots is a waste, so three wasted stats just to get the 500 int bonus). You could try to gamble Blackthorne's set as it allows to access higher Torment levels (that's my only ticket to higher difficulties as well right now), and put the second Aughild's piece on shoulders or helmet.
I shall try and modify current build for more optimisation, I've already removed Prodigy and replaced with Audacity as recommended. Will continue to farm fire items as I keep playing. Hope it doesn't take too long to get all I need only to then have them nerf it : S.
I was Initially hesitant to post on your forums asking for help as I had heard nasty things about people here. Diablofans forum community seems nicer that I was led to believe: ))). Thank you all very much.
Honestly you should just hold on to stuff for every element. You never know when they're going to buff/nerf things That's how I ended up going arcane. Just go with the elements that the gear has that you find. Remember if you have 3/4 good stats, enchant the last one!
I've been playing a Wizard since RoS launch, prior to which I played a Barbarian exclusively. I was told by a clan mate when I started to go for Arcane Orb - Frozen Orb build which I follow still. Since then I progressed to T2 but seem to have hit a brick wall. T3 seems to make me a bit too squishy and the DPS not as efficient. I was told that this is the 'limitation' of FO build now : S.
I would like to know if this is still the way to go? If not, Could someone tell me the recommended build for getting up to T5-6 which is what I want to be farming efficiently. Additionally, the gear required please :). Here is my toon.
Thanks in Advance.
Until you get the Andariels, the Ashearas 4 set is amazing for survivability as it has a very high uptime (like, I rarely ever find myself in combat and not with my followers) and adds damage too. Ofc it means gearing your followers but its not really very hard. On top of being 3 seperate targets for the enemy; the buffs hey provide (crit, AS, armour, resource regen) ontop of the heals and hexes and charms... That set jumped me from t2 to t4 in one fell swoop.
So from comment here and In-game it seems fairly unanimous cold is not viable for T5/6 and I must go to fire. Let me know if I've missed anything:
Head - Andariel's Visage
Neck - Ouroboros or a neck with Fire Damage%
Chest - Cindercoat
Gloves - Magefist
MH - WoW
I have taken note of other items mentioned in the thread but are the above all the items with Fire damage% on it? or are there more : )
I was in the exact same spot as you a few weeks ago. I had spent a lot of time not being able to really progress past t1/t2 with frozen orb. I was mainly irritated with frozen orb because you have to place that orb in the right spot for explosions and I felt like I was running away from mobs too often. I wanted a different playstyle. I started collecting arcane % gear and ended up just going arcane / disintegrate (all rares minus a decent andariel's btw). I tried stacking mitigation but I wasn't able to break through the t3 difficulty easily even then. Then I crafted Aughild's set and that was the ticket. Once I used the shoulders/bracers for the Aughild's set and rerolled other pieces for higher armor/all res, I could do t3/t4. I still prefer t3 as I can face tank and run with glass cannon, so for speed it's better, but I have better gear now. If you don't have the gear, prismatic armor run is the way to go and that helped me break the t3 barrier.
TLDR: Aughild's set is amazing. Energy Armor / Prismatic rune is amazing. Those two pieces really let me push into t3. Cold is viable, but I like arcane playstyle.
You can farm forever and not see any of the items mentioned above. There is absolutely no point in making a list of items you want to get and waiting for them to drop. They might never drop and you might get super frustrated (I did the mistake and told myself to get any wizard set for the 500 int bonus, not gotten any 2 items of any wizard set so far after a loooot of playing, so ultimately I'm feeling a bit frustrated now).
Also, you cannot aim for a build unless you have the items for it. Look at all the items that you have and create a build around it. I disagree with the notion of "go fire everything else is crap". Many, if not most, end-game wizards play arcane, and there are viable frost and lightning builds (some of them in the build section). It all comes down to the items you have, and the skills you like.
So, based on your gear I'd have gone for exactly the same build that you chose, with one exception: Prodigy. MM with Mirrorball is such a huge DPS spell that Prodigy is unnecessary; go Blur for extra survivability or Audacity for extra DPS. In terms of getting more survivability on gear Helycon already mentioned everything there is to say.
Focus on mitigation, if necessary you can drop some HP. I'd ditch the Cain helmet (extremely low rolls and socket is useless compared to, for example, allres) and possibly even Firebird's set (you don't need cooldown reduction and resource cost reduction with your build, and MS on boots is a waste, so three wasted stats just to get the 500 int bonus). You could try to gamble Blackthorne's set as it allows to access higher Torment levels (that's my only ticket to higher difficulties as well right now), and put the second Aughild's piece on shoulders or helmet.
I shall try and modify current build for more optimisation, I've already removed Prodigy and replaced with Audacity as recommended. Will continue to farm fire items as I keep playing. Hope it doesn't take too long to get all I need only to then have them nerf it : S.
I was Initially hesitant to post on your forums asking for help as I had heard nasty things about people here. Diablofans forum community seems nicer that I was led to believe: ))). Thank you all very much.
Good luck!