I believe that I have a good mix of aoe/defensive spells and I haven't had trouble at all so far. Basically I only melee on enemies when I have diamond skin up or when I know that I don't have a chance of dying, how long realistically do you guys think that I can keep this up?
I'm 48 and at the end of act 3 NM, and doing pretty much what you're describing. I never thought it'd work this long. As far as I'm concerned, it's definitely the higher dps option (at least when soloing), so as long as it works without me dying regularly, I'm sticking to it.
Actually I considered making a thread about this if anyone had tried it and made it work in hell and possibly inferno. Once in a while I'm playing around with melee and it works kinda nice even taking out champion packs but if the mobs have a strong combo of skills it's hard since u can't kite which is why I'm not doing it too much. Also I'm not sure to use a shield or not cause I end up with about 60% damage reduction from armor with it and energy armor.
When I'm going for it I'm using http://us.battle.net...XYOS!abW!ZYaZZc And wondered if anyone else had ideas/ ways of doing it and possibly a way to make it without overgearing the content or atleast not be risking it.
The reason for this build so far is
Blizzard cause it can freeze slow and u can keep it up without any arcane regeneration passives plus with cold blood it gives more damage to spectral blades while dealing a bit of damage and letting u controle stuff better.
Energy armor could probably use the 35% damage rune but I found in hell if I get hit that hard without having a way of dealing with it that won't save me it just means I will get hit for the same amount righrt after then again and die (on bosses sure though) but just using the extra crit for more healing on spectral blades
Magic weapon could probably be changed out but it gives damage and lifesteal which are both good atributes to get without using arcane power.
Edit : I guess with the right gear energy armor rune for less damage going for a lot of crit u could keep up energy armor with critical mass but semm like there are quite a few options but not sure how to do it .
How does Cold blooded add damage to spectral blades? Only if your wep has cold dmg right? Does'nt that narrow down your possible wep choices?
I really liked the idea of a melee mage from day 1 and would love to find a build that works in Inferno. I think there are two possible builds that could work: Energy armor with Force Armor rune or a crit build with Passive skill Critical mass.
Wave of force and slow time to not get killed by range (slow time slows down missiles, wave of force knocks them back). Blizzard to slow down enemies, can probably be swapped for a better spell, but could work great with the low cost to "control" the battlefield. Maybe Frost Nova instead? Or maybe arcane orbit.
The point is to amass alot of crit for lifesteal and reducing the CD on Frost Nova and Diamond skin.
Healing blades and Bloodmagic give you chance to heal yourself when you take dmg, Pinpoint barrier and Deep freeze to increase crit chance which will heal you and recude CD on lifesaving ablities (Frost Nova and Diamond skin) because of Critical mass. The beauty of it is that Frost Nova will increase Crit chance and crits will reduce the CD of Frost nova, circle of life:P Note that this will not work on boss fights as it requires 5 targets. If you have problem with surviveability then the rune on Energy armor should be swapped for Force armor.
These are the two ways I see melee mage being possible, alot will ofc. depend on gearing, need to buff up on health, defense etc. and esp. focus on crit chance with the second build. I have not playtested these on higher difficulties as I have not been able to level that far yet, but will gear myself in the melee direction and try to make melee mage work.
I think that out of these two or other ideas we can find a hybrid that works. Crit, lifesteal and Force armor I think are key abilities!
After reading up some more on melee wiz I noticed that Ray of Frost - Sleet storm rune is pretty decent (215% wpn dmg around you channeled), but might still not be better than arcane orb as you cant use spectral blades at the same time (which might be key for heals for instance).
Teleport - Safe passage can also be great, teleport into a pack, take less dmg and TP out again, rince repeat.
Worth noting that gearing right is (ofc) critical. AP on crit is important to keep your AP maxed out, so get a wep with AP on crit, other than that Crit is good and shield should be worn.
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http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WcXdTP!ab!ZZaaa
I believe that I have a good mix of aoe/defensive spells and I haven't had trouble at all so far. Basically I only melee on enemies when I have diamond skin up or when I know that I don't have a chance of dying, how long realistically do you guys think that I can keep this up?
How does Cold blooded add damage to spectral blades? Only if your wep has cold dmg right? Does'nt that narrow down your possible wep choices?
I really liked the idea of a melee mage from day 1 and would love to find a build that works in Inferno. I think there are two possible builds that could work: Energy armor with Force Armor rune or a crit build with Passive skill Critical mass.
Idea for Force armor build:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WldgOX!afX!YbZZYa
Wave of force and slow time to not get killed by range (slow time slows down missiles, wave of force knocks them back). Blizzard to slow down enemies, can probably be swapped for a better spell, but could work great with the low cost to "control" the battlefield. Maybe Frost Nova instead? Or maybe arcane orbit.
Idea for Critbuild:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WcYSOX!afg!YZYcZa
The point is to amass alot of crit for lifesteal and reducing the CD on Frost Nova and Diamond skin.
Healing blades and Bloodmagic give you chance to heal yourself when you take dmg, Pinpoint barrier and Deep freeze to increase crit chance which will heal you and recude CD on lifesaving ablities (Frost Nova and Diamond skin) because of Critical mass. The beauty of it is that Frost Nova will increase Crit chance and crits will reduce the CD of Frost nova, circle of life:P Note that this will not work on boss fights as it requires 5 targets. If you have problem with surviveability then the rune on Energy armor should be swapped for Force armor.
These are the two ways I see melee mage being possible, alot will ofc. depend on gearing, need to buff up on health, defense etc. and esp. focus on crit chance with the second build. I have not playtested these on higher difficulties as I have not been able to level that far yet, but will gear myself in the melee direction and try to make melee mage work.
I think that out of these two or other ideas we can find a hybrid that works. Crit, lifesteal and Force armor I think are key abilities!
Teleport - Safe passage can also be great, teleport into a pack, take less dmg and TP out again, rince repeat.
*edit*
This build is all the rage on the blizz forums: Apparently fairing well in A1 - Inferno:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WVYXSO!agf!YYYacZ
Worth noting that gearing right is (ofc) critical. AP on crit is important to keep your AP maxed out, so get a wep with AP on crit, other than that Crit is good and shield should be worn.