My current build at level 38, act 2 nightmare:
LMB: Magic missile - charged blast.
RMB: Disintegrate - Chaos Nexus.
1: Diamond skin - Crystal shell
2: Fireball - Molten impact (can better be swapped out with wave of force in some locations)
3: Magic Weapon - force weapon
4: Archon - Arcane Destruction
Passives: Evocation, glass cannon, Astral Presence.
Ok. How this works is easy. First of all, you can easily see this build is focusing at immense damage output. But how does it work? The key skill in this build is diamond skin. With crystal shell it effectively gives invulnerability for 6 seconds every 13 seconds (almost 50% of the time). This means that while it is active, you do not need to dodge. This is very important for my build, as I will at that time use either a fireball if an enemy pack is in melee range or disintegrate if they are in a line to me (which is often). Both are high damage powers, especially with the many buffs this build has. Astral presence ensures a fast reloading of arcane power. Archon is the panic button or the tough baddy eliminator.
Encounters usually start at range with either a meteor (if the enemy is not engaging yet) or disintegrate (while the baddies are running towards you). Once they reach you, without letting go of disintegrate, you can activate diamond skin. The enemy will start attacking you but the damage is absorbed. Should a lot of critters come into melee, fire a meteor at yourself.
Of course this doesn't always work. Sometimes a cascading retreat is necessary while you await for diamond skin to come back up again.
Champion packs and elites are usually doable, but the tough ones require archon. Not a problem, especially not considering the reduced cooldown. the fight will start with damaging the enemy as much as possible, using diamond skin as soon as they are about to damage you, and at the end of diamond skin activating archon (hopefully while they are in melee so they get hit with the 450% blast). Then tap 1 for another huge blast and start wailing on them.
The only times this build seems to fail is when you have nowhere to run, but this is mostly limited to the beginning of dungeons. Sometimes it's better to use wave of force in place of meteor too. It's defensive in nature and can be used at the end of a diamond skin to buy those crucial extra seconds.
Solo (with templar) I am able to decimate almost anything that I come across. In mutliplayer it heavily depends of what allies I get. If I got some tanks or crowd controllers, this works great. If not... well.. there's always another game.
LMB: Magic missile - charged blast.
RMB: Disintegrate - Chaos Nexus.
1: Diamond skin - Crystal shell
2: Fireball - Molten impact (can better be swapped out with wave of force in some locations)
3: Magic Weapon - force weapon
4: Archon - Arcane Destruction
Passives: Evocation, glass cannon, Astral Presence.
Ok. How this works is easy. First of all, you can easily see this build is focusing at immense damage output. But how does it work? The key skill in this build is diamond skin. With crystal shell it effectively gives invulnerability for 6 seconds every 13 seconds (almost 50% of the time). This means that while it is active, you do not need to dodge. This is very important for my build, as I will at that time use either a fireball if an enemy pack is in melee range or disintegrate if they are in a line to me (which is often). Both are high damage powers, especially with the many buffs this build has. Astral presence ensures a fast reloading of arcane power. Archon is the panic button or the tough baddy eliminator.
Encounters usually start at range with either a meteor (if the enemy is not engaging yet) or disintegrate (while the baddies are running towards you). Once they reach you, without letting go of disintegrate, you can activate diamond skin. The enemy will start attacking you but the damage is absorbed. Should a lot of critters come into melee, fire a meteor at yourself.
Of course this doesn't always work. Sometimes a cascading retreat is necessary while you await for diamond skin to come back up again.
Champion packs and elites are usually doable, but the tough ones require archon. Not a problem, especially not considering the reduced cooldown. the fight will start with damaging the enemy as much as possible, using diamond skin as soon as they are about to damage you, and at the end of diamond skin activating archon (hopefully while they are in melee so they get hit with the 450% blast). Then tap 1 for another huge blast and start wailing on them.
The only times this build seems to fail is when you have nowhere to run, but this is mostly limited to the beginning of dungeons. Sometimes it's better to use wave of force in place of meteor too. It's defensive in nature and can be used at the end of a diamond skin to buy those crucial extra seconds.
Solo (with templar) I am able to decimate almost anything that I come across. In mutliplayer it heavily depends of what allies I get. If I got some tanks or crowd controllers, this works great. If not... well.. there's always another game.
Former www.diablo2.com webmaster.
When in deadly danger,
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.
When in deadly danger,
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.