What type of Wizard will you be?

[Neltharion]

I'd like to know if anyone has already made plans on what type of Wizard they are going to play, what type of magic they want to focus on, favorite used spells etc.

As much as I'd like to be the most versatile Wizard and invest at least one point in every skill I don't think that will be feasable, especially after the designers stating, that they want to change the active skills so that more points can be spent on them.

Remembering fond days of Baldur's Gate 2 I decided to take the arcane way, especially Magic Missile. It travels very fast and you can cast it from a great distance so you can always hit what you want from safe position. What got my attention was the Improved Magic Missile talent which increases the numbers of missiles per skill point. Can you imagine mowing groups of monsters away with wave after wave of 15+ Magic Missiles, kinda like a Multishot Amazon from D2? :yes:
Those waves become even deadlier with the talents that give your arcane spells the ability to slow monsters down and increase damage taken from all sources, making you a great asset to any party.

I know that there is probably another rework going on with the skill system but I would be thrilled if my Magic-Missile-Waves-of-Arcane-Death-dreams come true. :cloud9:

If that proves to not be viable in the later stages of the game there's always the respec option. :thumbsup:

The only other thing that MAY change my plans is if they introduce Frozen Orb as one of the Storm Tier V skills. That could look sweet with the new engine.

[Silvermage]

Given the ability to respec, there is little reason to stick to one style until i have had a chance to try them all.

That said... a certain concept caught my interest the other day.

With maxed mana recovery, you could potentially get a mana globe every 1-2 kills, depending how the percentages work out. Now if you were to use some kind of AE attack such as, say, arcane orb, and also happen to have maxed mana burst... you could be chugging out arcane orbs that do maybe 3-6 times the normal damage as your standard attack. Or your volley of magic missiles, or whatever. I just like the concept of a single hugely destructive attack.

More than likely that will just be a side experiment at some point, my normal style is more likely to be a tad more versatile. Stone skin as standard defense, slow time for fast/ranged/hordes of enemies, and two attacks at around the same level, one AE one single target.

[LaZeR]

LOL. This game is so far from release it's stupid to plan your char by skills that will most certainly change one way or another. Not to mention none of 5 Tier Skill were introduced.

But it is fun, SO:
My first build will mostly likely be 1 point in each skill to get to know all and choose my favorite. But for now I think I will probably go the BattleMage way, with Mirror Image, Hydra, Meteor, Ray Frost, Spectral Blade and ofc- Slow Time and Teleport.
I'm sorry, but a melee Wiz just kick so much *** (:

[Telzen]

Given the ability to respec, there is little reason to stick to one style until i have had a chance to try them all.

That said... a certain concept caught my interest the other day.

With maxed mana recovery, you could potentially get a mana globe every 1-2 kills, depending how the percentages work out. Now if you were to use some kind of AE attack such as, say, arcane orb, and also happen to have maxed mana burst... you could be chugging out arcane orbs that do maybe 3-6 times the normal damage as your standard attack. Or your volley of magic missiles, or whatever. I just like the concept of a single hugely destructive attack.

More than likely that will just be a side experiment at some point, my normal style is more likely to be a tad more versatile. Stone skin as standard defense, slow time for fast/ranged/hordes of enemies, and two attacks at around the same level, one AE one single target.

There is no way there will be a full respec feature. Blizzard knows that would kill replayability.

As for my wizard. I think I'll start with a build based around ray of frost.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

I'll probably start with a cold based wizard. I like to freeze stuff. :) Although the conjuring tree with defensive spells, meteor, and hydra looks good too!

I'm hoping we'll get some class specific hats. A pointy wizard hat would be yummy. :)

Yeah, I'm hoping any respec would be maybe to undo only a point or two.

[LucianDK]

There is no way there will be a full respec feature. Blizzard knows that would kill replayability.

As for my wizard. I think I'll start with a build based around ray of frost.

Incorrect, Wow has full respec and that hasnt killed talent building and replayability.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

Incorrect, Wow has full respec and that hasnt killed talent building and replayability.

I haven't played WOW but I'd say that it makes no sense for me to play a cold wizard for 99 wizards and suddenly due to a respec he is now a level 99 melee wizard. In that sense it certainly would kill replayability becuse you could suddenly have a high level wizard that is in no way related to the 99 levels that were played.

[Silvermage]

It will be full respecs. Simply because it's better than having to spend weeks leveling up just to try another setup.

There has never been a petition to remove respecs from WoW. I have never so much as seen anyone suggest it. It will happen in D3 too, and that's a very good thing.

As for killing replayability. No, you guys who think that are idiots, or simply willingly ignorant, whichever. Talent builds are one of the most hotly debated topics in WoW. People spend literal days working out how to spend their points. It won't kill anything, it will give extra life to high level characters.

And if nothing else, you can simply choose to pretend there is no respec option and play another char for 90+ levels if you want.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

My good fellow, perhaps you could refrain from calling folks ignorant and idiots just because you disagree with them. Being the grumpy old wizard that I am I am sure that could out insult you if it were allowed on this forum. ;) Put I prefer a civil discussion.

Anywayzzz I fear that you are right that it will be a full respec and it will decrease the life of Diablo 3. Diablo is very much about building up your character over time. A respec is an instant "poof" transforming your character with no effort required.

If you know you will be getting a respec at in Act 3 you can just place your skills to do the most damage in the first few acts and then respec them into passives when you can access higher level spells. Diablo is supposed to be something of a role playing game and respecs certainly make no sense from that perspective.

And yes, I will pretend that respecs do not exist.

[GoldenBird]

Incorrect, Wow has full respec and that hasnt killed talent building and replayability.

WoW is also a MMORPG, while Diablo is a RPG. There's always new things going on in WoW, new events, and it takes some time to "complete" the game. In D3, there probably won't be so many updates and it won't nearly be as big, so yes it will kill replayability.

[MafiaRed]

As long as you will be able to play online and customize your character, I think that the game will still have decent replay value after reaching the maximum level. And even if you've exhausted your characters skill and epuipment combinations, you can always try out a new class =)

[Gorny]

No, you guys who think that are idiots, or simply willingly ignorant, whichever. Talent builds are one of the most hotly debated topics in WoW. People spend literal days working out how to spend their points. It won't kill anything, it will give extra life to high level characters.



Please re-read the forum rules and do not insult other forum members.

You won't be warned again.

[KillaMike]

my 1st wizzy build... hmm... so hard to decide. any way, here is my 1st build to be: experimental

[Risingred]

Please re-read the forum rules and do not insult other forum members.

You won't be warned again.

I like you. You're on a roll around here. :thumbup:

As for me, I'm rather torn.

Arcane damage+arcane weakness and the other passives that reduce resist are incredibly tempting. The arcane tree seems very utilitarian, very fun. Slow time seems like a must. I bet they'll move this skill up a bit in the tree and move the +dmg passives down, as you will only be using those passives for the arcane tree. Doesn't make much sense, currently.

An arcane wizard seems like she/he would be greater for parties than the other two trees, because of mana globe generation and also her numerous stun/slow/silence effects.

Conjuring looks just plain fun. Mirror Image? Um, yes please. This tree brings in the (tentatively) melee build which could be very fascinating but I feel that this largely depends on other aspects of the game or the equipment that we are currently not aware of. This tree also brings into question: for the glass cannon of d3, why so many defensive and shield skills?
Meteor storm looks absolutely brilliant and this tree seems more for AoE than single-target damage like the arcane tree (barring the multi-shotting Magic Missle if you so choose to go that route).
My guess would be that this tree has the most work left to go on it than the other two.

Now, the storm tree!
Passives: Damage damage damage. Everybody loves charged bolt. Even the defensive skills in this tree do damage. This may be the most favored tree upon release.
Like the barbarian, high-damage builds in Diablo 3 (for the wizard) will likely be crit-based, again, depending on the equipment properties and affixes. With that said, I still am not the biggest fan of this tree. I love blizzard as much as the next guy but I loathe tornado spells in games like this. I like to use a skill and know exactly what it is going to do. I don't want to guess where it is going to go. Then again, the fifth tier wasn't in yet so who knows.

All said and done, for single-player I would probably go conjuring with a bit in the storm tree. For multi, arcane all the way with points in the early tiers of both trees.

[LucianDK]

I should make a reminder of how the skillsystem functions in D3, if you have unlocked a tier in any tree, then you can put points in it in any of your trees.

Exactly how it worked like in D2. Once hitting lvl 30, you could plug points in the level 30 skills in all of the trees if meeting the prerequisites.

[Risingred]

I should make a reminder of how the skillsystem functions in D3, if you have unlocked a tier in any tree, then you can put points in it in any of your trees.

Exactly how it worked like in D2. Once hitting lvl 30, you could plug points in the level 30 skills in all of the trees if meeting the prerequisites.

But you still had to meet the pre-reqs. What that means is that you probably won't see some wizard walking around with the highest tier storm skills and slow time as well. This depends a lot on how they handle reqs, whether they are from skill-to-skill or just point based, and how many skill points a character will have during its run to the highest level.

[Cable]

When I do roll my Wizard, I think I'll mess with a time build.

And by time build, I was thinking of putting points into...

Actives: slow time, temporal armor, teleport, and mirror image

Passives: efficient magics, arcane distortion, mana recovery, damage resistant, conjured health, duplicate conjuring, conjuring duration, slowing strikes, lethal energy

[Telzen]

So how are you going to do any damage?

[lunarleif]

A mirror image, time slow, ranged attack reverse, and electrocute character is my wizard.

[zorro8081]

Mirror image just seems too good and the passive for it increases hydra count so something in that direction.......

[Drytchnath]

Fire, fire and more fire with a dash of Arcane for some Spectral Blade goodness. I'm thinking lots of focus on Meteor Storm and Hydra with some Arcane magic for buffs and close range damage.

[Frittmar]

in the trailer you could see something like a chain lightning which is also used buy shamans in wow. i somehow like that spell a lot. but as someone else said, i will respec a lot and try out all the trees just like in wow to get the perfect spec

[TheDarkSide]

I will be making my version of a wizard I like to model after the Starwars Darklord - "The Emperor". I will run around screaming "Power Unlimited Power" and casting chain lightning and the like from my fingertips ... Muahaha - cant wait ..


:jig:

[Reelix]

My first Wizard will be a Magic Missle / Mirror Image user - I'm a great fan of Mass-Units I can summon at anytime, and shooting from afar :)