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Gonna play with my brother and some RL friends, I like casters a lot so either with Wizard or Witch Doctor. My plan is to run through the all levels of the game till we stuck at some boss or Act and start an barb alt.

Channeling could be great for team play. It would be fun watching zombies burn or titans getting frosted. Glad to see everyone has their personal style and opinion. I wouldn't mind using all the trash skills just for fun.

------------------------------------------------------------ Combat ------------------------------------------------------------


In "Resource Management" section above, there are some handy combos for perma spamming one spell or two. Since there is little information about the actual end game gear, all below will be focusing on % based gain and kiting. Main focus here is for an avg geared Wizard to stand a "good" chance against the never dying mobs in Hell / Inferno.


COMBOS:




Stand and burn! (AOE)

--- Either + Alabaster RUNE or + Crimson RUNE + + Crimson RUNE + + Crimson RUNE + (for Flashes of Insight buff) + Any of these 2 + Indigo RUNE + Golden RUNE, if you feel like double Meteor.

-This will deal a lot of AOE damage over a very short period of time.




Meteor Shower (AOE)


--- +Alabaster RUNE + + Golden RUNE ++ Golden RUNE + + Golden RUNE +


-With 19 passive AP / sec regen rate, 120 Max AP, 32AP (39 AP - 7 AP) per Meteor cast, you can easily chain cast Meteor for 9 x in a row(not counting the Faster Cast buff from Timeslow) or a bit less (with the faster Cast Buff from Timeslow). Feel free to add Either + Alabaster RUNE or + Crimson RUNE + or anything makes mobs die even faster.

-This could be among the most powerful AOE in end game.




Arcane Storm (AOE Kite)



--- + Indigo RUNE(for AOE) or + Golden RUNE (Spam) + + or any other if you feel like to kite more

-Haven't played the game yet. I imagine, this works better if you manage to cast a number of these and lure mobs into them.



Hit and run


---+Alabaster RUNE + + Indigo RUNE + + Crimson RUNE + +

-I feel this will be great against single elite / unique mob, may be boss encounters. Changing Indigo Rune to Alabaster Rune could let players focus on Arcane damage gear build. (nobody knows how much arcane damage one could get in the end game)



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For a full list of Wizard skills (sorry don't have time to cover every skill listed above), please visit Blizzard Wizard Class Website and navigate.

Thanks to Blizzard for their great skill calculator and detail description on the skills and runes.


There are so many ways to build a Wizard. I hope these will help a bit for people who are new and looking forward to Diablo type of games. To give some basic ideas on how to synergize skills.

I am sure everyone is as excited as I am as the closed beta on this way. I am hopping this post will help those who likes the Wizard class and willing to develop their own playing style.

There are 6 Active Skills and 3 Passive Skills according to Blizzard Official Skill Calculator All skills and Runes below are subject to this, lv: 60 skills, Rank 7 runestones.

Wizard uses a special resource "Arcane Power" (AP) to cast his/her spells. Arcane Power is a fast generating pool which has 100 points of AP without any skills / items at end game with a default 12.5 AP / sec generation based on current beta.

I felt it is helpful to get an idea about the resource before choosing your skills.


------------------------------------------------------- Resource Management -------------------------------------------------------

Astral Presence - Passive

Max AP = 120, Regen = 14.5 (12.5 + 2) AP / sec

-Quickly dash out AP hungry spells (Passive 14.5/s Reg): x 2 x 2 x 3

-Enhance the duration of channeling spells:



Energy Armor + Indigo RUNE - Active

Max AP = 140, increasing your Defense by 20% while active, last for 120 sec



-See above "Astral Presence"


Storm Armor + Golden RUNE - Active

Reduce AP cost of all abilities by 7, shocking ranged and melee attackers for 1 - 61 Lightning damage while active, last for 120 sec

-ALMOST NEVER gonna run out !!! (Passive base 12.5/s Reg): Powerful pair + Crimson RUNE, or


-Great for spamming spells: + Alabaster RUNE , or + Golden RUNE

-Increase overall DPS by damaging attackers

-Again make it possible to quickly dash out many AP hungry spells (Passive 12.5/s Reg): x 2 x 2


Prodigy - Passive

Generate 5 AP per "Signature" spell cast see below

-AP Generator with 0 AP cost / cooldown Signature Spells: , , ,


+ Familiar Golden RUNE- Active

AP Regen = 17 (12.5 + 4.5) AP / sec


-See above "Astral Presence", "Storm Armor"

COMBOS:


AP Overwhelming:

---(Min spell travel time) + Golden RUNE ++Golden RUNE + + Alabaster RUNE + +


---(Max AP) + Golden RUNE + + Golden RUNE + + Alabaster RUNE + +


Fire Works now


3 x + Crimson RUNE + + + Indigo RUNE

-Just to give an idea on how AP abilities help on casting big stuff. For damage related combo, please see "Combat" section

------------------------------------------------------------ Survivability ------------------------------------------------------------

There are lots of people talking about how to build a Wizard to tank. From my personal D2 past experience, with avg gear in Hell, a Sorceress either got 1 shot by the elite / unique / boss or they don't, there is no time for potions or teleport often. Considering Blizzard introduced Inferno level and removed instant town portal , with no merc to tank at Inferno level, I felt armor % skills for a Wizard will not work / scale too well. I could be entirely wrong for this, and to be honest I would be happy if I were wrong. I dearly hope, in the full high end gear, a Wizard could solo tank Diablo in Inferno difficulty. For my theorycrafting, I will be explaining builds below solely preventing instant death for Inferno.

COMBOS:


"Cat has nine lives"


---+Alabaster RUNE ++ Obsidian RUNE + (Optional)

-11 lives for a Wizard


Get me out of here, NOW!



---+ Alabaster RUNE + + Golden RUNE


-Spamming Teleport, like Sorceress in D2



Stop, and, stop TIME!

---+ Alabaster RUNE + +Indigo RUNE

-Stun for 5 secs and knock back AOE, if the mobs are immune to stun / knock back, bubble them.