Help me with builds

[weakwarrior]

I hope this works. Here's my current setup: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/danie...ro/3605236. I can survive in Inferno Act III, but it takes me forever to kill anything. So, basically, I kite till the cows come home and that's how I kill things. It works, but it seems like it frustrates my coop partners. I'm wondering if someone can suggest 1) how to more efficiently use the items I have and/or 2) what builds would be available if I switched out a bit of my gear for other gear that costs, say, under 500K gold? Any help would be appreciated.

[weakwarrior]

It seems the link doesn't work. So, let me try briefly to explain. My character is level 60(8).

Helm: AC 675; 156 Int; 45 Vit; 44 Poison Res; 9% Life; +263 armor; CH chance increased 3.0
Shoulders: AC 582; 109 Str; 34 Int; 77 Vit; 48 Poison Res; 9% Life; +234 armor
Ammy: 33-58 damage; 57 Dex; 91 Int; 201 Vit; 32 Fire Res; Regen 70 Life Per Sec
Armor: 443 AC; 77 Int; 155 Vit; 41 Phys Res; 2 sockets (42 Int each)
Gloves: 288 AC; 26 Str; 84 Int; 50 Vit; 50 Arcane Res; Attack Speed +5%; CH damage increased 24%; CH chance increased 6.5%
Belt: 235 AC; 32 Dex; 75 Int; 79 Vit; 37 Cold Res; 5% Life
Bracers: 219 AC; 117 Int; 107 Vit; 46 Cold Res; 29 Res All
Ring: 112 Dex; 82 Vit; socket (34 Vit)
Ring: 79 Dex; 38 Int; 81 Vit; 15% MF; Reduce duration of control impairing effects by 13%
Pants: 370 AC; 74 Str; 86 Dex; 53 Int; 153 Vit; 29 Light Res; Melee attackers take 690 damage per hit; two sockets (38 Int each)
Spear (1H); 1035 DPS; 268 Min damage; 410 Max; +26%; 127 Int
Boots: 519 AC; 49 Int; 96 Vit; 40 Poison Res; 69 Res all; + 196 armor
Shield: 1316 AC; 16% chance to block; 2795-4707 block amt; 68 Int; 118 Vit; 43 Cold res; +275 armor; CH chance increased by 7.0%; CH chance of arcane orb increased 7%

Gear bonuses are: 12778 Vit; 1129 Int; +968 armor; CH chance increased by 16.5%; +23% life.
Total attributes are: Str 284; Dex 441; Int 1340; Vit 1421; Armor 5670; Damage 19572.6; Life 61.5K; Arcane Power 120

My current setup is Arcane Orb/tap; Hydra/venom; Diamon skin/crystal; Magic weapon/force; Energy Armor/prismatic; Teleport/fracture. Passives are Evocation; Critical Mass; Astral presence

[swirly]

It seems the link doesn't work.

The only thing wrong with it is the period on the end.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/danie...ro/3605236

[Chesspiece_face]

Few questions:

1. Is that your damage number with Force Weapon activated, or without?

2. Are you dead set on using a Critical Mass build?

3. Are you playing with Pubs or with friends?

There are a lot of gear pieces that you could probably upgrade fairly easily and cheaply but it may be better for you to take a step back and plan where you want to go with your character.

If you are playing with friends you could swap in some CC as opposed to your kiting skills so that you are offering something that helps your partners until you can get your damage up to speed. After 1.05 your CC will be much more potent in Inferno.

If you're not dead set on Critical Mass you can swap out some of your Passives to stuff like Glass Cannon in an attempt to get more damage out of your current set up.

Either way you should look into gearing and places to play that will in the long run be as productive as possible (while still being fun obviously). Look to get some Pick-Up Radius on your gear. This will both supplement your sustain easier with health orbs as well as make certain that you aren't leaving any gold on the table during the time you do get to play (this is extremely important, you don't really realize how much gold you leave sitting out there until it's sucked up with out any thought.) Also look to swap out your weapon with one that has a socket. Even grabbing a 70% crit damage gem in your weapon will be a huge boost to damage. Especially with a crit based build. Sacrificing some dps on your base weapon to get a socket will be more than worth your while.

If you're interested, feel free to send me a friend request. I may have some gear lying around that can help you out.

[weakwarrior]

Thanks guys. The damage is without Force Weapon. I have no strong feelings about the build. The only spell I use that uses cooldowns is Diamond Skin, although it is quite useful. I used to also use frost nova, although I got rid of it for Energy Armor for Belial, and think I might be better off this way. Finally, I split my time between friends, solo, and public. Playing Inferno Act III in a group is productive in that I get more gold and better drops faster. I will look into a socketed 1H weapon, although it looks like I have to sacrifice about 100 DPS and 100 Intelligence to find something affordable.

[Archon_Wing]

Personally I'd ditch archon and replace with arcane hydra.-- it's best when you massively outgear the content and can just zap everything to pieces, not as much when you're not mowing them down to increase archon duration

Hydra will provide more consistent dps and can also be casted to help your allies when you're running away.

[weakwarrior]

Sorry, that was a build I used just while I was playing coop with Chesspiece_face who moved very quickly. The setup online now is the one I used.

[Aahzmadius]

This seems like a good place for a build question. Last night I found 2 Storm Crow wizard hats. I gave the better one to a friend who uses a wizard all of the time. I kept the other, and was wondering about doing a lightning build since it gives an 8% boost to lightning damage. What do you wizard experts recommend? (I don't play mine very often.) Here's what I tried out last night for about 2 minutes:

Shock Pulse/Pulsing Orb
Blizzard/Stark Winter
Teleport/Fracture
Hydra/Lightning Hydra
Magic Weapon/Force Weapon
Storm Armor/Strike Back
Cold Blooded, Paralysis, ...? (I picked Blur)

What would you suggest for a third passive? This may not be an optimal build, but I don't mind trying underpowered variants. Profile link should be in signature if you want to look at more equipment details. I typically play in private games with friends and am trying MP2 at the moment.

Speaking of which, as a newbie, I was wondering what the protocol is for B.net friend requests. I'd like to add some Lurkers to my friends list, but I don't really know anyone here (I think I played in a game with Kandrathe a long time back). Is there a place to arrange games? Just send a friend request with "Lurker" in description? Just ask people here to add my Battletag? I usually play from 9 PM to 12 AM Eastern. Thanks for your help.

[Chesspiece_face]

This seems like a good place for a build question. Last night I found 2 Storm Crow wizard hats. I gave the better one to a friend who uses a wizard all of the time. I kept the other, and was wondering about doing a lightning build since it gives an 8% boost to lightning damage.

When an item says something like "Adds 7% to lightning damage" it doesn't actually effect your lightning damage unlike what it sounds like. All it does is take all the physical damage from your weapon and other items and then add 7% of that damage to your total as lightning.

Depending on how much physical damage you have on your weapon and items will effect how much actual benefit you gain from the bonus of the helm.

Some items, like Frostburn, do actually effect the specific elemental damage but the attribute on the items that effects this is labeled something like "Cold skills deal 20% more damage".

[Aahzmadius]

That is good information. Thanks. Guess I'll go back to an arcane build. I played the lightning build last night and didn't do very well on MP2. Not that surprising...I don't play the wizard all that much.