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So I was looking through Wizard skills, and came up with an idea for a build in which I use no signature spells. Instead, I thought, use Arcane Orb in the primary skill slot, runed to only cost 20 AP. Then get Energy Armor runed to add 20 AP, and invest in Astral Presence for additional regen and yet another 20 AP.

It sounds like a feasible build to me, but I don't know if I would actually be allowed to do it. Can I put a secondary skill (or something else for that matter) in the primary skill slot, or will that be impossible?

The Arcanomancer

I wanted to exemplify the raw, unadulterated power of the wizard with my first build, so I made one in which all damage was arcane type, and all abilities followed a sort of chaotic-magic theme. Furthermore, I decided not to include a signature spell, but instead to maximize Arcane Power supply and regeneration rate, so I could afford using two costly, but very powerful, spells as my primary and secondary attacks. I think that the build itself was a fun little challenge, and also will be very fun to play with.

Arcane Orb: This will act as the primary attack for the build. I runed it with Obliterate so as to greatly increase the damage, since it will be used so often. The entire skill set revolves around getting as many of these off during the fight as possible, which will be made possible through Energy Armor and Astral Presence.

Arcane Torrent : Mostly, this is used for Disruption. It's simple to cast quickly on a group of enemies, and because the amplification lasts for a full 6 seconds, the Wizard will be able to fire off a few cheap Arcane Orbs into the group, totally annihilating them.

Teleport: Bread n' butter escape mechanism. This Wizard wants to stay as far away from her enemies as possible. With a greatly enhanced Arcane Power pool and greater regeneration, Wormhole makes it easy to chain teleports and allow her to be anywhere in the room she needs to be.

Hydra: A powerful, supportive spell. The Arcane Hydra deals area of effect damage, and will help pick off enemies as the Wizard herself is teleporting around the room, untouchable.

Energy Armor: A 65% increase to armor is fairly significant. Since enemies shouldn't be hitting you too frequently with the help of Teleport, this helps to ensure that when they do, the hurt is significantly mitigated. Furthermore, Energy Tap increases the quantity of available Arcane Power, allowing for even more Arcane Orbs to be doled out.

Archon: The epitome of magical might. Because it hasn't been experimented with in the beta, there is very limited information regarding it. However, it fits the theme of the Arcanomancer, and I predict will be a very formidable spell, given its 120 second cooldown. As such, I figure that the best way to further enhance that is to magnify its damage with a rune of Improved Archon.

Temporal Flux: All damage in this skill build is arcane type. With this, every spell will also have a slowing component.

Astral Presence: Combined with the runed Energy Armor, this offers a total of 140 Arcane Power and 12 regenerated per second (I believe) to the Wizard. This is crucial to the Arcane Orb spam. Even though it only bears a cost of 35, it is going to be used almost constantly, and as the Arcanomancer needs all the power she can get. She will never run out of power at this rate.

Glass Cannon: This passive skill exemplifies the Arcanomancer best. She is best when she cannot be touched, and her goal is to unload as much damage as she can very rapidly so as to completely annihilate her opponents.

The sheer amount of rage and effort people are putting into talking about this cinematic has severely weakened my faith in humanity for the day. After reading two pages of this I almost forgot people were talking about a video game.

That being said, I enjoyed it, and I look forward to the release of Diablo III.

I have a thing for themed builds, and since I want to play a Wizard as my first character in Diablo III. I have thus far come up with these six. I invite anyone to bring in any other themed builds that they have come up with.

-The Arcanomancer:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#dekRim!bcU!bZZaac
This build focuses completely on Arcane damage, utilizing Arcane Orb as the primary source of damage for most purposes. It focuses more on augmenting the raw damage of that spell than anything else.

-The Storm Queen / Storm Lord:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#djlRgS!Yde!bZaYbZ
All Lightning and Cold damage here. Ray of Frost is for single-target damage, with Hydra, Blizzard and Slow Time for some AoE support.

-The War Sorcerer:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#XeTbWV!eVg!acZYcY
This is my take on a completely melee wizard. I'm actually tempted to try it out, because it looks quite fun.

-The Phoenix:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#YURPQS!Ycd!ZabZYZ
Burn them all! With the exception of Disintegrate, it's all Fire damage in this build. But I felt Disintegrate fit the theme well with an Alabaster Rune.

-The Entropy Mage
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#akcfhm!Ydf!ZacYaZ
The name of the game is chaos. The only single-target spell is a Crimson Magic Missile, but everything else focuses on wreaking havoc with large groups of foes.

-The Skybreaker
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#dlPSQO!dYa!baZZYb
I thought, "wouldn't it be fun to have a build in which the primary source of damage was Meteor?" So I made one. It utilizes a crimson Meteor for as much damage as I can fit onto a single target, with as much extra AP regeneration I can get to fuel even more such Meteors.

Please submit your own themed builds to the mix! And keep in mind that I'm not crunching any hardcore numbers here. I'm thinking more about my overall playing experience and style than how efficient my damage output is going to be.

Quote from ElectricEel

That weapon damage is in an area not directly onto one monster unless it is very big?... (but how big is the area? wouldn't a small area be good?) However, compared to Arcane Orb's damage per area (with it's one projectile) it is a better spell... The ap use is the biggest problem, however if you fire Arcane Orb twice you shouldn't have nearly the chance at critical that you would from firing indigo meteor once and Indigo meteor should do more damage if attacking a pack... Also I think it would more accurate to count the damage per projectile X the damage increase of FN/ST/AT/Arcanot/GC (whichever two or three of those you will use) but when you multiply it by 14 it will always look like some huge number...

Yes I wasn't going to press the matter, but I noticed teleport the spell, teleport in the archon. Only reason I didn't mention it is that we don't know what his setup is, he might have some super cool mouse, or not be using a laptop (like I am, though my desktop is right next to me) Seeing as I played all of Diablo 2 without a mouse, I probably won't be too big on teleport... (though I did use it with my notebook's mouse pad in the game) If his wrist is controlled enough to make this fun then I'm not going to ask any questions.........

I plan on using a mouse. Teleport simply serves as a survivability measure, just in case things get messy. The 24% slow from Temporal Flux is useful, but it's not going to save me if I find myself surrounded all of a sudden. However, are there other utilities that might better take its place?

I'm thinking that it's going to be a kind of shapeshifting class. Not necessarily in the sense of a literal shapeshifter, like the Druid from Diablo II, but a class that has multiple approaches to combat (forms, presences, stances, etc). Depending on the form, the effects of their abilities would differ, as would some of their basic approaches to fighting. Alternatively, the form severely limits what abilities may be used and drastically alters combat style.

I really like the idea of humans being the balancing race between the forces of Heaven and Hell. They are neither good nor evil, and have a choice with regards to how they will align themselves: with the Angris Council, with the Prime Evils, or with humanity. My concept is a character whose play style is reflective of these types of choices. With the destruction of the Worldstone and the reawakening of much of humanity's latent magical prowess, the lines between Heaven, Hell and humanity are being blurred to some extent on the mortal plane of Sanctuary. My character idea, called the Apostle, would have three choices: represent Heaven, humanity, or Hell.

The Apostle's energy source is called Humanity, and his playstyle is one great a balancing act. For simplicity's sake, let's say it has a cap of 100. If his Humanity is above 50, it will slowly drain until it reaches the middle. If it is below 50, it will slowly regenerate in an effort to restore balance. The closer he is to Angelism (100 Humanity), the quicker it will drain, and the closer he is to Damnation (0 Humanity) the faster it will regenerate. He has three types of abilities: Angelic, Mortal, and Demonic. As the Apostle approaches Angelism, his Angelic abilities slowly become more powerful, but his Demonic abilities will grow weaker. Similarly, Demonic abilities will be more potent the closer the Apostle is to Damnation, at the cost of the effectiveness of his Angelic abilities. This will be an inherent part of his energy source, and cannot be altered by passives.

Mortal abilities will either cost or generate Humanity, depending on whether or not Humanity is above or below 50, respectively. A Mortal ability can never cause Humanity to go above or below 50. These spells will revolve around raw, single-target damage, survivability and resilience. There is a great focus on the powers of the individual character with Mortal abilities, and less focus on the strengths and capabilities of his allies or enemies. Some passives might offer bonuses for maintaining a balanced Humanity.

Angelic abilities will generate Humanity. They will focus on healing, summoning, area-of-effect damage and crowd control. These spells are very focused on groups of enemies and/or allies, rather than single-target damage or enhancement. Some passives might offer greater effects for staying closer on the side of Angelism.

Demonic abilities cost Humanity. They will focus on destruction, crippling enemies, malice and mass mayhem. The Demonic side specializes in tearing enemies apart with very fast and merciless attacks and feeding off the suffering of the Apostle's foes. Demonic abilities may occasionally put the character at higher risk, but will always yield great offensive power in return. Some passives might offer greater effects for straying closer to Damnation.

So yeah. That's my idea of something that might be coming down the line.

Quote from ElectricEel

I actually agree with AW on this, I could see prodigy if you had energy armor.

Golden Storm armor with RoF/Dis and Ice Armor with alabaster will be very common... since RoF does do massive damage etc. etc. etc. more than anything you have here except Archon (maybe?)

Ya they are all good spells but can you use Archon with AT ? Since Archon gets supposedly powerful archon abilities?

Also, if your going to screw around with Electrocute and Golden rune, you might as well get meteor instead of arcane orb... with Arcane Dynamo (if your intent on using it) and Meteor you could do 1485 max damage on initial hit... (of course RoF with arcane dynamo would do 1072 max damage and as long as you hold button down you should keep AD with it and again overpower meteor, which is what RoF does best...

Also if you use Meteor with AT you'd put Orb to shame on damage with a maximum of 2178 damage on the first hit... compared to 1089 damage from Arcane Orb. Meteor with Indigo and AT could do a total damage of 8993.6 in an area... I respect your choice of Arcane Orb, I just can't respect it's damage.....

Meteor Indigo: 14 meteors strike for 292 % weapon damage, X 1.2 % for AT with Crimson = 4905.6, +4088 damage from the meteors alone = 8993.6 damage to an area. I respect your arcane thing but... Meteor in place of AO would do so much more, it is clumsy but powerful. Add storm armor with alabaster and the effect could be, an abomination...
(till you run out of AP) add slow time with 140% damage and my calculator says (not double checked) 14716.8 damage in an area while ST is up.... if your into that kind of thing. add crimson familiar and it is 16352... add GC: 17169 damage to an area while ST is up.

Ya I'm glad I actually put more effort into critique than just talking about someone else.... also the numbers above are percent weapon damage... not actual damage etc. etc. etc. etc.

I'm curious how you are calculating your numbers in reference to Meteor. Arcane Torrent with Crimson only increases Arcane damage dealt, and meteor deals Fire damage (unless it's imbued with an obsidian rune). Therefore, it would receive no benefit from Crimson AT. Secondly, I find it very doubtful that Indigo Meteor is going to be capable of having all 14 meteors strike the same target. Otherwise, it sounds like it would be overpowered. 4088% weapon damage, or even half of that, to any single target sounds nothing short of absurd. But perhaps I am misunderstanding the ability. This build also calls for using Arcane Orb as both single target and group damage. I can also fire off two orbs in rapid succession, while I cannot do so with Meteor, which would allow me to actually deal more damage at the cost of a little more power.

Please explain your maths to me. Your calculations seem to yield some outrageously high numbers.

I've been seeing a lot of really fantastic builds on this forum, and they've been getting some very great feedback. I simply figured I would throw mine into the mix, and ask for some thoughts and opinions. My goal is to design a build in which almost all of the heavy hitting comes from arcane type damage and makes use of the Temporal Flux passive. This is the current incarnation of that idea:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#dekRim!bcU!bZZaac

The main purpose of Electrocute is to fuel a large number of Arcane Hydras and Arcane Orbs. If I'm correct, hitting the maximum 3 targets with this build will earn me 26 AP, and just one will earn me a minimum of 12 AP. Either way, I'm incentivized by both the rapid AP regen and Arcane Dynamo to cast Electrocute often.

With a Crimson Rune, Arcane Orb seems to be very powerful, especially combined with a Crimson Arcane Torrent. I feel like I could use it effectively both as a single-target nuke against bosses, and against large groups of enemies. The Arcane Hydra I feel also compliments Arcane Torrent, and with the quick AP regen from Electrocute, I can summon a number of them in any fight.

Teleport is mostly supposed to be my "Osh!t" button, which is why I gave it an Alabaster Rune for chain Teleports. I don't expect to use it often, since my enemies will be slowed due to Temporal Flux, but you never know. Not much seems to be known about Archon at this point, but I feel that it can serve as an even bigger "Osh!t" button for things like boss fights.

What do yall think?

I'm going to play a Wizard first, then maybe a Barbarian. I just love the feeling of that raw, destructive power balanced by fast and effective ability usage. I also love the lore behind the Wizard: an unpredictable, frighteningly powerful rogue magus, beholden to none who wishes to delve into the deepest secretes of the universe.