05-21-2012, 06:33 AM
Teleport-Wormhole is also a really good choice. I should have mentioned it along with Frost Nova and Diamond Skin: as a matter of fact against some of the hardest packs it is probably better than either of them.
Nice catch on the display bug. I think of the two I still prefer Force Weapon but it's a much closer thing now. The thing that bugs me about Sparkflint is that it won't necessarily hit the thing I hit.
Also, my passives:
1) Glass Cannon. I feel like this is still a no-brainer. With Energy Armor the difference between Glass Cannon and no Glass Cannon is .7-1.5% protection. That's almost totally irrelevant, also see below for what I have to say about Inferno.
2) Astral Presence. Even more of a no-brainer. I would probably drop Glass Cannon before this if I really had to. This counteracts Energy Armor's penalty and just helps hugely overall since your primary damage sources are still AP powers.
3) Galvanizing Ward/Prodigy. I swapped depending on the situation. Prodigy with Magic Missile (split) is, as you observed, a great AP returner, and when I felt like I had the luxury to play with it I did. I do think ultimately that Galvanizing Ward is the better choice.
I took my first steps into Inferno difficulty tonight. Truly I have no conception of how a hardcore character will ever survive this difficulty. One particularly painful pack required upwards of fifteen deaths from every member of the team. When someone beats Inferno on hardcore it will truly be an achievement.
I swapped my rune on Energy Armor to Force Armor, with the result that I quickly knew what 35% of my max health was since nearly every hit was for that value. I haven't even discarded my vitality yet - I have 31.5k health - and it might as well have been 3 health, since I died in three hits either way. I do not think I will ever be unassigning this spell or rune, which rules out Ice and Storm Armor completely for Inferno. The other consequence of always being hit for the same value is that any statistic that reduces incoming damage is somewhat meaningless - not entirely, since Reflect Damage packs will simply obliterate you if you fully discard vitality, but armor and resistances, I believe, have no effect on even that.
I kept all the skills I mentioned in my previous post but my lack of defensive abilities began to show even more as I died probably around 20% more than the other wizard on my team. As a team capability, I think keeping Archon is worthwhile even if I do die a little more, because sometimes we needed large numbers of mobs exploded quickly or a minion focused down. The strength of Archon in this case is its flexibility - it can hit multiple mobs at once, or focus one for huge damage, or pass through mobs, especially important if the boss has Invulnerable Minions, a hell and inferno only modifier that does exactly what it says. (That is, by consensus amongst everyone who's experienced it that I've asked, the worst possible boss modifier.)
For Inferno I think the real competition isn't between offensive spells but just how many defensive abilities you can fit in. Diamond Skin combined with Force Armor is an almost guaranteed 2 extra hits absorbed (Crystal Shell is the only possible rune) and that can be so incredibly valuable. Frost Nova comes up every nine seconds (again, most other runes just don't help at all) and being able to stop a bunch of mobs, even for one precious second, can mean the difference between being able to kite them for a long distance or being run down and slaughtered immediately.
Our team had to embark on extremely long kites twice, and it's only random modifier luck that we didn't have to do more. Once we took a mob from the middle of its own area to the entrance of the previous zone. The longer one was a kite entirely through the town of New Tristram up to that promontory overlooking the town where you start the game...and then around and back through the town again.
At least they won't follow you into Cain's house.
Nice catch on the display bug. I think of the two I still prefer Force Weapon but it's a much closer thing now. The thing that bugs me about Sparkflint is that it won't necessarily hit the thing I hit.
Also, my passives:
1) Glass Cannon. I feel like this is still a no-brainer. With Energy Armor the difference between Glass Cannon and no Glass Cannon is .7-1.5% protection. That's almost totally irrelevant, also see below for what I have to say about Inferno.
2) Astral Presence. Even more of a no-brainer. I would probably drop Glass Cannon before this if I really had to. This counteracts Energy Armor's penalty and just helps hugely overall since your primary damage sources are still AP powers.
3) Galvanizing Ward/Prodigy. I swapped depending on the situation. Prodigy with Magic Missile (split) is, as you observed, a great AP returner, and when I felt like I had the luxury to play with it I did. I do think ultimately that Galvanizing Ward is the better choice.
I took my first steps into Inferno difficulty tonight. Truly I have no conception of how a hardcore character will ever survive this difficulty. One particularly painful pack required upwards of fifteen deaths from every member of the team. When someone beats Inferno on hardcore it will truly be an achievement.
I swapped my rune on Energy Armor to Force Armor, with the result that I quickly knew what 35% of my max health was since nearly every hit was for that value. I haven't even discarded my vitality yet - I have 31.5k health - and it might as well have been 3 health, since I died in three hits either way. I do not think I will ever be unassigning this spell or rune, which rules out Ice and Storm Armor completely for Inferno. The other consequence of always being hit for the same value is that any statistic that reduces incoming damage is somewhat meaningless - not entirely, since Reflect Damage packs will simply obliterate you if you fully discard vitality, but armor and resistances, I believe, have no effect on even that.
I kept all the skills I mentioned in my previous post but my lack of defensive abilities began to show even more as I died probably around 20% more than the other wizard on my team. As a team capability, I think keeping Archon is worthwhile even if I do die a little more, because sometimes we needed large numbers of mobs exploded quickly or a minion focused down. The strength of Archon in this case is its flexibility - it can hit multiple mobs at once, or focus one for huge damage, or pass through mobs, especially important if the boss has Invulnerable Minions, a hell and inferno only modifier that does exactly what it says. (That is, by consensus amongst everyone who's experienced it that I've asked, the worst possible boss modifier.)
For Inferno I think the real competition isn't between offensive spells but just how many defensive abilities you can fit in. Diamond Skin combined with Force Armor is an almost guaranteed 2 extra hits absorbed (Crystal Shell is the only possible rune) and that can be so incredibly valuable. Frost Nova comes up every nine seconds (again, most other runes just don't help at all) and being able to stop a bunch of mobs, even for one precious second, can mean the difference between being able to kite them for a long distance or being run down and slaughtered immediately.
Our team had to embark on extremely long kites twice, and it's only random modifier luck that we didn't have to do more. Once we took a mob from the middle of its own area to the entrance of the previous zone. The longer one was a kite entirely through the town of New Tristram up to that promontory overlooking the town where you start the game...and then around and back through the town again.
At least they won't follow you into Cain's house.