MasterRakinshu
04-11-2008, 08:58
I think it is more then obvious that Blizzard has designed the melee based Wizard to be not only viable but probably a quite common archetype. There are a TON of skills to support this mainly in the Conjuration tree, but elsewhere too.
In Conjuration we have Defense/Survivability oriented skills:
Damage Resistance, Stone Skin, Conjured Armor, Conjuring Duration, Duplicating Conjuring, Conjured Health and Mirror Image
Offensive melee-viable skills:
Spectral Blade, Weapon Mastery, Acid Cloud, Conjured Power, Imp Spectral Blade, Magic Weapon, Magic Impact, Hydra, Slowing Strikes, Armor Piercing, Mirror Image (?)
I suspect only a handful of these skills will be considered mandatory or necessary to a viable melee build. Ive also found some interesting possibilities that could play into this playstyle well if it is possible to go far enough into the other trees.
Storms:
Storm Armor- Maybe a possible substitute for Stone Skin with alot more offensive approach? Seems it would possibly be better for PvM
Static Charge- Basically mana shield, could be useful for adding even more defense
Lethal Energy- Increases chance to crit with melee and spells. This is a huge bonus and would probably be a large motivator for delving into the Storm tree.
Arcane:
Arcane Armor- Further improves whichever type armor you have going, great defensive benefit.
Slow Time- Still can't be certain of its exact effects but if it does infact slow attack speed and/or movement speed of enemies in the bubble this puts the Wiz at a huge advantage, I would think especially in PvP situations. Just imagine chasing a slowed Barb as he tries to flee your time bubble cause his attack speed is so dramatically decreased and you can go toe to toe with em.
Temporal Armor- Another armor option that stops all damage from an attack every 6 seconds. Interesting, but probably not more practical then the others.
Mana Burst- Increases the damage of a spell cast at full mana. I could see this being awesome if the Wiz is not constantly relying on mana and can toss out a horribly damaging Spectral Blade soon as his mana regens to full each time.
Runic Might- We can only guess increasing the effects of runes will be a great thing, although i'm not sure quite how they plan this skill to work.
Sorry for the long post but I'm seeing more and more interesting options every time I look at this. This is all based on skills alone of course, and we can't quite yet say if mixing these trees will be viable, or if gear issues or stats will make this unlikely to work. More then anything it stands out to me as a good combination of skills for PvP, which at this point seems potentially dominant (of course we know so little still). Well thats all I got give me your thoughts
In Conjuration we have Defense/Survivability oriented skills:
Damage Resistance, Stone Skin, Conjured Armor, Conjuring Duration, Duplicating Conjuring, Conjured Health and Mirror Image
Offensive melee-viable skills:
Spectral Blade, Weapon Mastery, Acid Cloud, Conjured Power, Imp Spectral Blade, Magic Weapon, Magic Impact, Hydra, Slowing Strikes, Armor Piercing, Mirror Image (?)
I suspect only a handful of these skills will be considered mandatory or necessary to a viable melee build. Ive also found some interesting possibilities that could play into this playstyle well if it is possible to go far enough into the other trees.
Storms:
Storm Armor- Maybe a possible substitute for Stone Skin with alot more offensive approach? Seems it would possibly be better for PvM
Static Charge- Basically mana shield, could be useful for adding even more defense
Lethal Energy- Increases chance to crit with melee and spells. This is a huge bonus and would probably be a large motivator for delving into the Storm tree.
Arcane:
Arcane Armor- Further improves whichever type armor you have going, great defensive benefit.
Slow Time- Still can't be certain of its exact effects but if it does infact slow attack speed and/or movement speed of enemies in the bubble this puts the Wiz at a huge advantage, I would think especially in PvP situations. Just imagine chasing a slowed Barb as he tries to flee your time bubble cause his attack speed is so dramatically decreased and you can go toe to toe with em.
Temporal Armor- Another armor option that stops all damage from an attack every 6 seconds. Interesting, but probably not more practical then the others.
Mana Burst- Increases the damage of a spell cast at full mana. I could see this being awesome if the Wiz is not constantly relying on mana and can toss out a horribly damaging Spectral Blade soon as his mana regens to full each time.
Runic Might- We can only guess increasing the effects of runes will be a great thing, although i'm not sure quite how they plan this skill to work.
Sorry for the long post but I'm seeing more and more interesting options every time I look at this. This is all based on skills alone of course, and we can't quite yet say if mixing these trees will be viable, or if gear issues or stats will make this unlikely to work. More then anything it stands out to me as a good combination of skills for PvP, which at this point seems potentially dominant (of course we know so little still). Well thats all I got give me your thoughts