03-19-2014, 08:03 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-19-2014, 08:57 AM by FireIceTalon.)
So ever since patch 2.01 came out, I have been exclusively running a Frozen Orb/cold build and having much fun with it. So much fun in fact, that I thought playing anything else on a Wizard would be unthinkable. That was, until today.
I found a curios legendary amulet called the Moonlight Ward, and took it upon myself to find out that this is a highly sought after Leg. The stats on the one I found aren't absolutely incredible, but +23% dmg to arcane skills, a nice Int stat, 7.5 cc, and the effect of having arcane shards blast close by enemies was enough for me to fancy an arcane build.
The first thing I changed was replacing Frozen Orb with Arcane Torrent (Cascade rune) as my main damage spender. Although AT normally would do less dmg than FO, with the bonus from the amulet AT becomes the stronger skill, and at less cost of resources. But to maximize the arcane blast effect on the amulet, this requires one to play a sort of "tanky" build, so I ended up changing almost everything in terms of skill selection (items stayed the same outside of the amulet, the whole point of this build).
For my signature spell, I dropped Forked Lightning (or Glacial Spike) for Spectral Blades. I'm currently undecided which rune is best but for now I'm running Thrown Blades for more distance and dmg boost.
Off came the storm armor, and in with Energy Armor (Prismatic). EA has always been a bit boring to me, but with this build, because you are up close and personal with your foes, it's pretty much a must.
Magic Weapon with Deflect rune stayed on, while I changed Familiar's Sparkflint to Cannoneer (for more arcane dmg). For my defensive skill, I had been running with Teleport with my Orb build but now that I will be tanking, teleport seems a bit pointless now. Not to mention, it is very buggy anyways. So that came off, and I replaced it with Diamond Skin (Shards rune).
An interesting alternative could be to use Spectral Blades with Barrier Blades rune to get your shielding there, and free up Magic Weapon to be able to use Force Weapon and raise your dps some. Ofc the disadvantage to this is that you have to cast Spectral blades for that shield to be up, which requires some more micromanaging whereas with Deflect it comes up with all your attacks since MW is a background buff. Either way, on high torment levels a shielding skill of sorts is required.
For passives, I'm going with Glass Cannon for more dmg, Blur for reduced incoming dmg, and Temporal Flux for some crowd control. TF works wonderful with this build because mobs are slowed throughout almost the entire battle. In a sense it is trivial I suppose, since with this build, most battles are quite short :-)
No doubt there is lots of room for flexibility with this build, especially now that we can distribute paragon points, so change skills to suit your personal needs.
The result? Mind = blown. This build has so much creativity and synergy, it's amazing. Wizard always has had the best synergy of all the classes on D3 imo, which is one of the reasons its my favorite class.
This build demonstrates that synergy perfectly, but more importantly, it is incredibly fun to play, as well as extremely effective. I run it on T5 with ease, and most elites just drop dead within 20 seconds (waller, shields, and extra health mobs take longer). Trash mobs are practically almost dead on contact with the arcane explosion and a couple arcane torrent casts.
For those of you playing Wiz, I highly recommend you give this build a go, if you are lucky enough to find a Moonlight Ward amulet. It's just awesome, even more fun than Frozen Orb or other cold builds. Ofc, since you will do alot more tanking, I cannot understate how important having mitigation is, though you can obviously get away with less playing at lower torment levels.
See profile for the amulet stats and the build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/FireI...ro/1540010
To give you guys an idea of my dps and stats I have to run T5 efficiently with this build, they are as follows:
98k Life, with 2k LoH, 3% LS, 1800 life regen, and 3k+ life on kill
Armor 4.5k with Enchantress, 1k+ all resist, 10 ApoC, and sheet dps 320k buffed (real dps is much higher, my Arcane Torrents can crit for 2 mill+ @_@)
I found a curios legendary amulet called the Moonlight Ward, and took it upon myself to find out that this is a highly sought after Leg. The stats on the one I found aren't absolutely incredible, but +23% dmg to arcane skills, a nice Int stat, 7.5 cc, and the effect of having arcane shards blast close by enemies was enough for me to fancy an arcane build.
The first thing I changed was replacing Frozen Orb with Arcane Torrent (Cascade rune) as my main damage spender. Although AT normally would do less dmg than FO, with the bonus from the amulet AT becomes the stronger skill, and at less cost of resources. But to maximize the arcane blast effect on the amulet, this requires one to play a sort of "tanky" build, so I ended up changing almost everything in terms of skill selection (items stayed the same outside of the amulet, the whole point of this build).
For my signature spell, I dropped Forked Lightning (or Glacial Spike) for Spectral Blades. I'm currently undecided which rune is best but for now I'm running Thrown Blades for more distance and dmg boost.
Off came the storm armor, and in with Energy Armor (Prismatic). EA has always been a bit boring to me, but with this build, because you are up close and personal with your foes, it's pretty much a must.
Magic Weapon with Deflect rune stayed on, while I changed Familiar's Sparkflint to Cannoneer (for more arcane dmg). For my defensive skill, I had been running with Teleport with my Orb build but now that I will be tanking, teleport seems a bit pointless now. Not to mention, it is very buggy anyways. So that came off, and I replaced it with Diamond Skin (Shards rune).
An interesting alternative could be to use Spectral Blades with Barrier Blades rune to get your shielding there, and free up Magic Weapon to be able to use Force Weapon and raise your dps some. Ofc the disadvantage to this is that you have to cast Spectral blades for that shield to be up, which requires some more micromanaging whereas with Deflect it comes up with all your attacks since MW is a background buff. Either way, on high torment levels a shielding skill of sorts is required.
For passives, I'm going with Glass Cannon for more dmg, Blur for reduced incoming dmg, and Temporal Flux for some crowd control. TF works wonderful with this build because mobs are slowed throughout almost the entire battle. In a sense it is trivial I suppose, since with this build, most battles are quite short :-)
No doubt there is lots of room for flexibility with this build, especially now that we can distribute paragon points, so change skills to suit your personal needs.
The result? Mind = blown. This build has so much creativity and synergy, it's amazing. Wizard always has had the best synergy of all the classes on D3 imo, which is one of the reasons its my favorite class.
This build demonstrates that synergy perfectly, but more importantly, it is incredibly fun to play, as well as extremely effective. I run it on T5 with ease, and most elites just drop dead within 20 seconds (waller, shields, and extra health mobs take longer). Trash mobs are practically almost dead on contact with the arcane explosion and a couple arcane torrent casts.
For those of you playing Wiz, I highly recommend you give this build a go, if you are lucky enough to find a Moonlight Ward amulet. It's just awesome, even more fun than Frozen Orb or other cold builds. Ofc, since you will do alot more tanking, I cannot understate how important having mitigation is, though you can obviously get away with less playing at lower torment levels.
See profile for the amulet stats and the build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/FireI...ro/1540010
To give you guys an idea of my dps and stats I have to run T5 efficiently with this build, they are as follows:
98k Life, with 2k LoH, 3% LS, 1800 life regen, and 3k+ life on kill
Armor 4.5k with Enchantress, 1k+ all resist, 10 ApoC, and sheet dps 320k buffed (real dps is much higher, my Arcane Torrents can crit for 2 mill+ @_@)
https://www.youtube.com/user/FireIceTalon
"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)
"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)