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OMG is this build good for ACT I if you have slightly better than ACT I gear. For the first time ever I put on 100% of my magic find gear and was able to progress quickly though an inferno Act. Thank you so much for this build, I made 350k gold last night in no time (not including a couple of decent drops that should sell for a lot), and it was fun.

I'm sure you can get rid of either illusionist or evocation to be more aggressive, but I wanted to be extra sure I could have clones around or diamond skin on at all times. Against the mobs in that area, it was amazingly safe. And after spending gobs of money on repairs, I was sick of losing money in ACT III, so went the safe route.

edit - Also I should add that my resists were pretty bad, so I wouldn't go glass cannon passive b/c that would get me killed too fast if one fire chain guy gets around me. I wasn't able to use up my arcane power so any of those passives would be useless. Wasn't using sig spells so none of them were good. I almost think with the style I was using nothing else made sense, except maybe critical mass which amounts to the same thing. Maybe cold dmg passive for blizzard would be nice.

edit2 - And along those lines, when I walk into a new area, I cast Mirror Image beforehand so I don't have to panic if there are a ton of ranged mobs firing all at once. I was able to progress through the dungeon quickly instead of like I was walking on glass. It was very liberating as a mage who usually is spending half of my time avoiding stuff that could kill me in a second with one lag spike or one misclick. I just absolutely love the way the mage plays with so much variety. Love love love it.

I used a similar build on the dungeon part of Act III right before Ghom. It worked incredibly well because that area is full of ranged mobs and elites that just destroy you as you walk into a room. My version goes like this:

http://us.battle.net...POQX!bdf!bbZYYa

Basically, you always have a few clones running around, and you use diamond skin for the oh crap moments. The clones help keep mobs in place for venom hydra to do well. And I just constantly run back and forth casting blizzard everywhere.

The strange thing is I usually don't like defensive builds, but I found this one very fun and doesn't feel boring at all. You would think for all the lack of dmg buffs that it would take a while to kill mobs, I'm under 30k dps unbuffed, but with venom hydra you can do fine against most elites in that area. I was killing stuff a lot better than any of my offensive builds because I was always getting trapped and killed in the dungeons. Out in the open areas, I prefer other builds than the decoy/clones builds though.

Yeah, teleport is very picky. Try going to the corner of the walls they put around you, then very carefully point in an open area and teleport there. Still, not sure it works 100% and they should fix it!!!

Useful against gold goblins, too. It's actually a very important aspect of a lot of builds for the Wizard.

Thanks once again. I was able to get past a fair bit of Act III for the first time ever using your build. I had tried arcane orb builds, blizz/venomhydra, etc. My stats ended up being similar to yours, but less crit % damage and lacking on resists. Still, what a fun build and it works!

But when I got to the dungeon part before Ghom, I had to switch it up for a super defensive build (fracture, 5xmirror image rune, diam skin, Galv.Ward, etc.) with blizz/venom hydra to get past it. All those ranged elites and soulrippers were killing me. Now I'm at Ghom and he's destroying me... trying to figure out if I can beat him without better gear. Seems like I need more resists with decent dps.

Anyway, I look forward to going back to your build once I get past Ghom and maybe get a little better gear.

Very good spell analysis. I absolutely love it when people go against popular builds and find all the good stuff out. Looks like crit dmg and arcane power on crit is crucial. I'm at about 32% crit chance, 100% crit dmg, but no AP on crit. Time to go shopping! Thx again.

Very cool build. I loved torrent in the lower levels, but never found a way to use it in inferno. I must try this! What are your other stats if you don't mind? I have similar HP/DPS stats but had trouble in A3 and went back to A2 using AO or Blizz/Hydra builds. My one big thing my gear is missing is arcane energy on hit... that might be my big weakness I bet.

I like a challenge, and ACT II inferno has been tough, but I'm getting through it. I always look for deals on the AH and buy cheap for small upgrades. Also finding the right build, even if it's not your playstyle, based on your gear is critical. Learning to kite is a big deal. And I don't mind dying as long as I'm making money in the long haul and getting a shot at decent drops. I do skip the occasional impossible elite pack that is positioned on top of my revive point, etc. Or if I pull 2 elite packs at once, etc.

I look at it like this.
4

Diablo 3 is four or five games in one... some are quick and fun, others are hard or can be a grind.

The first game is Normal and Nightmare difficulty. You need no AH.
The 2^nd game is Hell difficulty. You don’t need AH (if you are a wizard at least... I haven't gotten my alts that far yet).
The 3^rd game is the AH by itself.
The 4^th game is Inferno, after you played halfway through the AH and got (keep getting) some decent gear.
The 5^th game is playing all your alts.

I may never finish the 3rd or 4th game, but I’ll definitely play the rest. And I'm still enjoying the challenge of inferno and the strange game that is the AH.

This thing is awesome. Finally I can go buy something expensive in the AH because I won't be guessing.

In Act II (maybe just in town), if you turn up ambient sounds and music to max, and turn down other sounds in options, you can clearly hear one of the monsters from Doom/Doom2. I think it's the baron of hell sound.

Ofc i don't have the game here, so I may be getting the correct monster sound confused now... but I think it's the sound from this at 17 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTz1xFeKQZk

Am I nuts or is that the sound?!