05-20-2012, 11:39 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-20-2012, 11:55 AM by Skandranon.)
An update now that I'm level 60 and have access to everything.
Magic Missile, Attunement:
Situationally useful for regeneration. It depends on what you're doing with passives and whether you can take Prodigy or not.
Magic Missile, Seeker:
Occasionally fails to seek but is a very solid choice. If you miss at least once every seven shots it pulls more or less even with Charged Blast and only gets better if you happen to miss more. That said, there seem to currently be some issues as to whether it tracks properly. Most of the time on storyline bosses it will do fine.
Shock Pulse, Lightning Affinity:
This requires that you use unimproved Shock Pulse. This gets increasingly harder to do and by hell difficulty you almost certainly will not be doing this.
Shock Pulse, Living LIghtning:
This has much less range than I thought and does very little damage. The range is the biggest issue. If I want to AoE with this spell I'll just use Piercing Orb which does more damage and can reach to the edge of the screen.
Spectral Blade, Healing Blades:
Apparently there's a strange gimmick tank-Wizard build out there that uses this to heal up. It is apparently viable through Nightmare, but I haven't heard anything from it since. For those of us who aren't doing that this doesn't improve the spell at all.
Spectral Blade, Thrown Blades:
I had high hopes for this but then I forgot that characters are ten Diablo yards tall. This extends the spell's range by a tiny amount that doesn't even really count as out of melee. If you're going to use Spectral Blade, something else probably makes more sense.
Electrocute, Surge of Power:
At most this is three AP per cast and only if there are three targets and only if you're using Electrocute which has awful damage. Just no.
Electrocute, Arc Lightning:
Turns Electrocute into a short fan that still does pathetic damage. The one thing Electrocute had going for it was range. This takes that away for absolutely no return, since you could probably Chain Lightning as many enemies that fit in the fan for just as much damage and much safer range.
Ray of Frost, Black Ice:
Like Explosive Bolts and Volatility, this rune's effectiveness decreases dramatically at higher difficulties when you just aren't killing targets as quickly. Importantly, all of these abilities seem to be implicitly used for mowing through normal, non-minion, non-champion, non-rare packs. And you can kill those with anything.
Arcane Orb, Celestial Orb:
Unmentioned in the description is that it actually makes the orb 10 yards wide, the size of the explosion. When you upgrade this you fling a ridiculously long-ranged disc of death that smashes everything in its path for 175% weapon damage. I certainly couldn't find it in myself to pass it up.
Arcane Torrent, Power Stone:
The stones drop at the point of impact. So I have to stand still and channel them and then run over toward the enemy to pick them up? No thank you.
Arcane Torrent, Cascade:
Another one that triggers on kills, and increasingly less useful for the same reason.
Disintegrate, Intensify:
While hitting for much more damage with Disintegrate sounds good, Intensify also intensifies Disintegrate's ray-based disadvantages by forcing you to stand still to activate it. You're going to need to be grouping with a lot of melee to buy yourself the space for this.
Frost Nova, Deep Freeze:
In general as you progress in difficulty, every rune has to be better than Cold Snap in order to be worth considering. This isn't, although it's better than it first looks. In Hell difficulty hitting five things is not that uncommon and the boost actually lasts long enough to do something with it.
Frost Nova, Bone Chill:
There appears to be a difficulty-based duration reduction on freeze effects. In Hell I rarely see anything frozen longer than maybe one and a half seconds. I suppose this is usable if you're running Normal at level 51.
Diamond Skin, Enduring Skin:
Situationally useful if you aren't precisely sure when you're going to get hit, but the original six second window is usually wide enough, and in Hell you really, really want Crystal Shell.
Diamond Skin, Diamond Shards:
This is actually okay since it happens when Diamond Shard wears off for any reason. But again, it's just a little damage which is much less compelling than Crystal Shell.
Slow Time, Perpetuity:
Useful whenever Slow Time is useful. Not much else to say. The static nature of the bubble actually makes this spell substantially less effective at higher difficulties than I thought it did.
Slow Time, Stretch Time:
Again, the running battle nature of higher level combat means that at any level where you have this it won't make a big enough difference. Anything that a barbarian can actually hold in place can be beaten without this.
Teleport, Fracture:
Combining two moderately useful spells results in actually a sort of decent ability. Distance and distraction in one ability. Hardcore players will love this.
Teleport, Calamity:
Ideally a rune for teleports into hot zones. Usable offensively but that will probably kill you as well. I'm not sure I like this as much as Wormhole if the point is defense or escape.
Wave of Force, Exploding Wave:
It's probably at least as good as Impactful Wave if you're surrounded, but not as good against one or two targets. I prefer Impactful because sometimes you'll have to use it against one or two. Of course, Wave of Force is competing against a lot of other slots and it tends to get crowded out against Diamond Skin and Energy Armor.
Energy Twister, Wicked Wind:
This is probably the best Twister rune since you can place it behind you as you run, so that it is sure to hit something. Of course, they have to make up for it being useful by hitting its damage really hard. You still aren't going to get the full six seconds out of it, so this is really competing with Blizzard which does its job way better.
Energy Twister, Storm Chaser:
At least the giant twister fired from accumulating Storm Charges goes straight and it has good range. The part that sucks is that you have to cast 3 completely unimproved Twisters first.
Hydra, Frost Hydra:
Short range cones actually work okay for things that aren't yourself. This frost damage unfortunately doesn't snare, but if you're being chased by a horde this is actually a good option. Unfortunately you are not likely to be chased by a horde often enough for this to warrant a spot on your bar.
Hydra, Molten Hydra:
Range and area of effect, counterbalanced by lower damage. I'm not sure what people are looking for out of Hydra is AoE, but it does have a higher chance to hit. Note that it only has one head, so the damage reduction is more severe than it first appears.
Meteor, Liquefy:
You'd need an entire dedicated crit set and a legit barbarian tank grouping with you to make this work. Most people won't have one or the other.
Blizzard, Stark Winter:
This is probably about as good as Snowbound for the same reason.
Blizzard, Unrelenting Storm:
I don't like this as much as the other two. Mobs aren't likely to be in the six second original duration anyway, so two more seconds doesn't help as much. If you want to slow down enemies behind the first set, Snowbound and Stark Winter do exactly the same thing and also let you do other things with the spell.
Ice Armor, Ice Reflect:
This is actually really nice, but it isn't reliable and competes with Energy Armor. Also this is outcompeted defensively by, well, Frost Nova. And if you already have that, Diamond Skin is a much better next choice, even if you pass up Energy Armor.
Ice Armor, Frozen Storm:
As a reminder, Ice Armor costs 25 Arcane Power to cast. When I spend that kind of Arcane Power, 10% weapon damage per second over 3 seconds in melee range isn't what I call an acceptable return.
Shocking Armor, Scramble:
Running is a great part of defense, but it's not the only part. It's hard to choose this over Energy Armor.
Shocking Armor, Shocking Aspect:
Criticals are rare and a little damage to a nearby enemy is again not worth giving up Energy Armor.
Magical Weapon, Venom:
It does some extra damage, but 5% increased damage from Force Weapon is better since reapplication of Venom doesn't increase the damage done, but with Force Weapon you can cast more than one spell in a 3 second window.
Magical Weapon, Blood Magic:
Can be a useful method of health regeneration. Galvanizing Ward is a better choice, but if you can't do that and can't put steal on your weapon, it can be worth using this.
Familiar, Arcanot:
A nice way of getting AP back. I prefer sparkflint to hit harder, but there's a curious combo combining this with Astral Presence and Cold Blood to cast Ray of Frost forever, providing that your weapon is sufficiently slow. (To clarify, the calculator says Cold Blood reduces the cost to 0, but it is actually to 12 in the live game, and it pulses at your weapon speed. So it is consuming 12*attackrate AP per second, and for any two hander that will usually be from 11 to 14.)
Familiar, Cannoneer:
Any attempt to use Familiar as direct damage is missing the point. Like this one.
Energy Armor, Pinpoint Barrier:
Not worth the max AP reduction. Especially since it's competing against things that are.
Energy Armor, Force Armor:
All indications is that this is a forced choice in Inferno. Apparently no degree of currently available defensive statistic stacking is capable of keeping a Wizard alive for more than three hits anyway, so Wizards run this instead, ditching all their Vitality gear such that Force Armor reduces the hit to a low absolute value. Then they simply stack life replenishment gear and are unkillable by anything other than three hits in a row. Before Inferno it can be useful as you get closer to the end of Hell difficulty, where even in single player mobs begin to get close to one-shot range.
Energy Armor, Prismatic Armor:
If you're taking Energy Armor's AP hit already, Force Armor is, for now, a better way to do it.
Explosive Blast, Obliterate, Chain Reaction:
Even with Obliterate you never really want to be close enough for this to work. Trying it deliberately is an exercise in frustration. Chain Reaction actually asks you to stay in range for three seconds. The only way this would work is if you could guarantee you would not get hit.
Mirror Image, Mocking Demise:
The stun is what you want, not the damage. Stuns are increasingly more powerful in Hell difficulty and probably in Inferno. This is a legitimate option for people who can fit Mirror Image into a build, but very few people have been able to do that.
Mirror Image, Extension of Will:
Images are unlikely to live to the end of the base life or duration anyway, and the increased life isn't enough to change that.
Mirror Image, Mirror Mimics:
Yet another awkward attempt to graft offensive attributes on to a defensive spell. The plus is that maybe the monsters target the images more? It's hard to tell without a lot more testing.
Archon, Slow Time:
This is actually a pretty decent rune. Unlike the Wizard's, the Archon's Slow Time bubble moves with you, and a defensive ability can sometimes make the difference between being able to stand still with Archon without being shredded, and not.
Archon, Improved Archon:
Although this is probably what you want. Slow Time still doesn't help you sit in the middle of a pack with Archon, so realistically you're still only using it when conditions can set it up for you. When you do, you want it to pack the maximum punch.
Temporal Flux:
I wanted to like this so much. I have not yet been able to actually detect any discernible snare on things I care to have snared. If I can't snare a champion mob or minion running me down, being able to snare normal mobs is not a helpful compensation.
Critical Mass:
Maybe when we're all kitted out in Inferno gear we'll crit more than 5-10% at a time. Until then this doesn't do much.
Arcane Dynamo:
A lot of Inferno boss battling is spamming magic missile. In theory this should help a lot when you inevitably cast Arcane Orb, but it's hard to justify this over some more solid passives.
Unstable Anomaly:
Goes off pretty much all the time in Hell, but the knockback isn't very significant and the 60 second cooldown is troublesome. The good thing is that the cooldown resets when you die, meaning that if this goes off, you die, and revive, you get another right away if you will need it (and you probably do).
Magic Missile, Attunement:
Situationally useful for regeneration. It depends on what you're doing with passives and whether you can take Prodigy or not.
Magic Missile, Seeker:
Occasionally fails to seek but is a very solid choice. If you miss at least once every seven shots it pulls more or less even with Charged Blast and only gets better if you happen to miss more. That said, there seem to currently be some issues as to whether it tracks properly. Most of the time on storyline bosses it will do fine.
Shock Pulse, Lightning Affinity:
This requires that you use unimproved Shock Pulse. This gets increasingly harder to do and by hell difficulty you almost certainly will not be doing this.
Shock Pulse, Living LIghtning:
This has much less range than I thought and does very little damage. The range is the biggest issue. If I want to AoE with this spell I'll just use Piercing Orb which does more damage and can reach to the edge of the screen.
Spectral Blade, Healing Blades:
Apparently there's a strange gimmick tank-Wizard build out there that uses this to heal up. It is apparently viable through Nightmare, but I haven't heard anything from it since. For those of us who aren't doing that this doesn't improve the spell at all.
Spectral Blade, Thrown Blades:
I had high hopes for this but then I forgot that characters are ten Diablo yards tall. This extends the spell's range by a tiny amount that doesn't even really count as out of melee. If you're going to use Spectral Blade, something else probably makes more sense.
Electrocute, Surge of Power:
At most this is three AP per cast and only if there are three targets and only if you're using Electrocute which has awful damage. Just no.
Electrocute, Arc Lightning:
Turns Electrocute into a short fan that still does pathetic damage. The one thing Electrocute had going for it was range. This takes that away for absolutely no return, since you could probably Chain Lightning as many enemies that fit in the fan for just as much damage and much safer range.
Ray of Frost, Black Ice:
Like Explosive Bolts and Volatility, this rune's effectiveness decreases dramatically at higher difficulties when you just aren't killing targets as quickly. Importantly, all of these abilities seem to be implicitly used for mowing through normal, non-minion, non-champion, non-rare packs. And you can kill those with anything.
Arcane Orb, Celestial Orb:
Unmentioned in the description is that it actually makes the orb 10 yards wide, the size of the explosion. When you upgrade this you fling a ridiculously long-ranged disc of death that smashes everything in its path for 175% weapon damage. I certainly couldn't find it in myself to pass it up.
Arcane Torrent, Power Stone:
The stones drop at the point of impact. So I have to stand still and channel them and then run over toward the enemy to pick them up? No thank you.
Arcane Torrent, Cascade:
Another one that triggers on kills, and increasingly less useful for the same reason.
Disintegrate, Intensify:
While hitting for much more damage with Disintegrate sounds good, Intensify also intensifies Disintegrate's ray-based disadvantages by forcing you to stand still to activate it. You're going to need to be grouping with a lot of melee to buy yourself the space for this.
Frost Nova, Deep Freeze:
In general as you progress in difficulty, every rune has to be better than Cold Snap in order to be worth considering. This isn't, although it's better than it first looks. In Hell difficulty hitting five things is not that uncommon and the boost actually lasts long enough to do something with it.
Frost Nova, Bone Chill:
There appears to be a difficulty-based duration reduction on freeze effects. In Hell I rarely see anything frozen longer than maybe one and a half seconds. I suppose this is usable if you're running Normal at level 51.
Diamond Skin, Enduring Skin:
Situationally useful if you aren't precisely sure when you're going to get hit, but the original six second window is usually wide enough, and in Hell you really, really want Crystal Shell.
Diamond Skin, Diamond Shards:
This is actually okay since it happens when Diamond Shard wears off for any reason. But again, it's just a little damage which is much less compelling than Crystal Shell.
Slow Time, Perpetuity:
Useful whenever Slow Time is useful. Not much else to say. The static nature of the bubble actually makes this spell substantially less effective at higher difficulties than I thought it did.
Slow Time, Stretch Time:
Again, the running battle nature of higher level combat means that at any level where you have this it won't make a big enough difference. Anything that a barbarian can actually hold in place can be beaten without this.
Teleport, Fracture:
Combining two moderately useful spells results in actually a sort of decent ability. Distance and distraction in one ability. Hardcore players will love this.
Teleport, Calamity:
Ideally a rune for teleports into hot zones. Usable offensively but that will probably kill you as well. I'm not sure I like this as much as Wormhole if the point is defense or escape.
Wave of Force, Exploding Wave:
It's probably at least as good as Impactful Wave if you're surrounded, but not as good against one or two targets. I prefer Impactful because sometimes you'll have to use it against one or two. Of course, Wave of Force is competing against a lot of other slots and it tends to get crowded out against Diamond Skin and Energy Armor.
Energy Twister, Wicked Wind:
This is probably the best Twister rune since you can place it behind you as you run, so that it is sure to hit something. Of course, they have to make up for it being useful by hitting its damage really hard. You still aren't going to get the full six seconds out of it, so this is really competing with Blizzard which does its job way better.
Energy Twister, Storm Chaser:
At least the giant twister fired from accumulating Storm Charges goes straight and it has good range. The part that sucks is that you have to cast 3 completely unimproved Twisters first.
Hydra, Frost Hydra:
Short range cones actually work okay for things that aren't yourself. This frost damage unfortunately doesn't snare, but if you're being chased by a horde this is actually a good option. Unfortunately you are not likely to be chased by a horde often enough for this to warrant a spot on your bar.
Hydra, Molten Hydra:
Range and area of effect, counterbalanced by lower damage. I'm not sure what people are looking for out of Hydra is AoE, but it does have a higher chance to hit. Note that it only has one head, so the damage reduction is more severe than it first appears.
Meteor, Liquefy:
You'd need an entire dedicated crit set and a legit barbarian tank grouping with you to make this work. Most people won't have one or the other.
Blizzard, Stark Winter:
This is probably about as good as Snowbound for the same reason.
Blizzard, Unrelenting Storm:
I don't like this as much as the other two. Mobs aren't likely to be in the six second original duration anyway, so two more seconds doesn't help as much. If you want to slow down enemies behind the first set, Snowbound and Stark Winter do exactly the same thing and also let you do other things with the spell.
Ice Armor, Ice Reflect:
This is actually really nice, but it isn't reliable and competes with Energy Armor. Also this is outcompeted defensively by, well, Frost Nova. And if you already have that, Diamond Skin is a much better next choice, even if you pass up Energy Armor.
Ice Armor, Frozen Storm:
As a reminder, Ice Armor costs 25 Arcane Power to cast. When I spend that kind of Arcane Power, 10% weapon damage per second over 3 seconds in melee range isn't what I call an acceptable return.
Shocking Armor, Scramble:
Running is a great part of defense, but it's not the only part. It's hard to choose this over Energy Armor.
Shocking Armor, Shocking Aspect:
Criticals are rare and a little damage to a nearby enemy is again not worth giving up Energy Armor.
Magical Weapon, Venom:
It does some extra damage, but 5% increased damage from Force Weapon is better since reapplication of Venom doesn't increase the damage done, but with Force Weapon you can cast more than one spell in a 3 second window.
Magical Weapon, Blood Magic:
Can be a useful method of health regeneration. Galvanizing Ward is a better choice, but if you can't do that and can't put steal on your weapon, it can be worth using this.
Familiar, Arcanot:
A nice way of getting AP back. I prefer sparkflint to hit harder, but there's a curious combo combining this with Astral Presence and Cold Blood to cast Ray of Frost forever, providing that your weapon is sufficiently slow. (To clarify, the calculator says Cold Blood reduces the cost to 0, but it is actually to 12 in the live game, and it pulses at your weapon speed. So it is consuming 12*attackrate AP per second, and for any two hander that will usually be from 11 to 14.)
Familiar, Cannoneer:
Any attempt to use Familiar as direct damage is missing the point. Like this one.
Energy Armor, Pinpoint Barrier:
Not worth the max AP reduction. Especially since it's competing against things that are.
Energy Armor, Force Armor:
All indications is that this is a forced choice in Inferno. Apparently no degree of currently available defensive statistic stacking is capable of keeping a Wizard alive for more than three hits anyway, so Wizards run this instead, ditching all their Vitality gear such that Force Armor reduces the hit to a low absolute value. Then they simply stack life replenishment gear and are unkillable by anything other than three hits in a row. Before Inferno it can be useful as you get closer to the end of Hell difficulty, where even in single player mobs begin to get close to one-shot range.
Energy Armor, Prismatic Armor:
If you're taking Energy Armor's AP hit already, Force Armor is, for now, a better way to do it.
Explosive Blast, Obliterate, Chain Reaction:
Even with Obliterate you never really want to be close enough for this to work. Trying it deliberately is an exercise in frustration. Chain Reaction actually asks you to stay in range for three seconds. The only way this would work is if you could guarantee you would not get hit.
Mirror Image, Mocking Demise:
The stun is what you want, not the damage. Stuns are increasingly more powerful in Hell difficulty and probably in Inferno. This is a legitimate option for people who can fit Mirror Image into a build, but very few people have been able to do that.
Mirror Image, Extension of Will:
Images are unlikely to live to the end of the base life or duration anyway, and the increased life isn't enough to change that.
Mirror Image, Mirror Mimics:
Yet another awkward attempt to graft offensive attributes on to a defensive spell. The plus is that maybe the monsters target the images more? It's hard to tell without a lot more testing.
Archon, Slow Time:
This is actually a pretty decent rune. Unlike the Wizard's, the Archon's Slow Time bubble moves with you, and a defensive ability can sometimes make the difference between being able to stand still with Archon without being shredded, and not.
Archon, Improved Archon:
Although this is probably what you want. Slow Time still doesn't help you sit in the middle of a pack with Archon, so realistically you're still only using it when conditions can set it up for you. When you do, you want it to pack the maximum punch.
Temporal Flux:
I wanted to like this so much. I have not yet been able to actually detect any discernible snare on things I care to have snared. If I can't snare a champion mob or minion running me down, being able to snare normal mobs is not a helpful compensation.
Critical Mass:
Maybe when we're all kitted out in Inferno gear we'll crit more than 5-10% at a time. Until then this doesn't do much.
Arcane Dynamo:
A lot of Inferno boss battling is spamming magic missile. In theory this should help a lot when you inevitably cast Arcane Orb, but it's hard to justify this over some more solid passives.
Unstable Anomaly:
Goes off pretty much all the time in Hell, but the knockback isn't very significant and the 60 second cooldown is troublesome. The good thing is that the cooldown resets when you die, meaning that if this goes off, you die, and revive, you get another right away if you will need it (and you probably do).