(07-09-2012, 06:21 PM)Concillian Wrote: Wave of force + stun
Good idea on Wave of Force, I'll be sure to try it out. While leveling to 60 I've been going back and forth between Hydra and Magic Weapon. Hydra is beyond useful for Act 2 & 3 in Hardcore, especially Act 3 for baiting out lunatics into meteors. Although once I got my DPS high enough I felt Magic Weapon provided significant damage output to have it over hydra in some zones.
But in Hardcore I've never felt truly threatened due to lack of dps or lack of hydra, so they feel more like bonus skills. What makes me so intrigued with Wave of Force is that the only situations where I have been truly threatened is champion packs with waller/vortex/jailer combined with Arcane Orb or fast/fire chain on already fast mobs. When fighting them I was always in the most open area possible but there was still a split second where I was vulnerable due to frost nova and diamond skin on cooldown. One time in particular was a dark berserker pack that had jailer/waller/arcane. Wave of Force would give me a third skill in those rare situations when I'm tapped out (which has only happened once, but in hardcore inferno those champion packs will be more common and my only real danger). My concern for using it in Inferno would be the lack of dps and enrage timers. You had said with Astral Presence and 10k DPS it was doable against the Butcher, but can you confirm if you switched out Wave of Force (thus giving up Valor)? BTW I completely agree about Astral Presence, the only time I see myself giving this up is if I get lucky with finding gear with perfect rolls for AP on Crit, +Max Arcane Power, and +crit chance.
I foresee the next week or so being dedicated to Act 3 hell runs. I'm extremely limited on hardcore resources so my gear is pretty poor to take advantage of the build. Although I'm giving it a try for a bit while paying close attention to my cooldowns to see if Critical Mass is triggering enough. For reference, here is my current gear and current stats.
Thanks for all the information so far. Hopefully I'll find some better gear and report back with my hardcore progression.
*edit - force armor is not active so my crit chance is normally 18.5% with pinpoint barrier and my armor gives me around 61% damage reduction. Before getting to Inferno I hope to have more crit gear so I can switch out pinpoint barrier for prismatic armor. It's really a challenge getting a balance of all the stats needed for this build!