Hellacious Freeze - Wiz Build

[Npballer]

Furthest update of this build : http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#jcOiZV!TYd!baZaZc

I've always been an avid PvPer, played D2 at the highest levels for years and D1 before that. I was a WoW player before the first expansion in which high level PvP was my focus as well.

Active:

Ray of Frost (Golden)
Wave of Force (Alabaster)
Meteor (Crimson)
Teleport (Alabaster)
Frost Nova (Crimson)
Diamond Skin (Obsidian)

Passive:

Evocation (-20% cooldowns)
Glass Cannon (+20% dps, +10% damage taken)
Astral Presence (+20 AP, +AP regen)

This build would be for both PvE and PvP. It combines a strong, glass cannon type DPS ability with enough survival skills and room for creative skilled play.

RoF (Golden to allow little to no AP cost at higher levels, replaces the need for a signature spell) would be used as the primary spell with Meteor as the high DPS AoE spell. I prefer Crimson Meteor over Comet for the higher pure damage. The snare of Comet would not be needed as much because of both RoF and Frost Nova. Wave of Force is a recent addition, but I like this spell in this build a lot now. Between RoF and Meteor, I will have 4 spells on cooldown to use in various combos. WoF does a lot of damage for one, but also knocks back and stuns. Perfect for melee monsters, bosses, Barbarians and Monks. In conjuction with Frost Nova, it gives me two options for nearby AoE control. These two spells also seemingly have great chemstry with Teleport. I could Teleport into mobs or opposing heroes and use Wave of Force right away, teleporting into the range and right back out after using the spell (with Alabaster Teleport). Same goes with Frost Nova. Alternating between Nova and WoF based on cooldowns should give me plenty of control and set-up.

Teleport is an essential Wizard skill. You can use it offensively or defensively. It also always grants the Wizard an element of suprise because others will never know where they might teleport or attack from next. I love Alabaster Teleport, I also liked Golden and Obsidian. The aforementioned Frost Nova is, in my opinion, the other essential Wizard skill. This is the ultimate set-up spell, used for offensive purposes as well as defensive. As a ranged caster, what's better then freezing your opponents in place? Of course Crimson makes this even better then +30% damage taken while frozen. I like the +critical chance one as well, but ultimately took Crimson. Lastly, I like Diamond Skin over any type of Armor Spell or Mirror Image. I like Obsidian DS especially, I figure 3 seconds with a higher max damage is better then an extended DS with Indigo. When a large amount of projectiles are coming, I expect to be hit by a strong boss or attack, or even when getting ready to teleport into mobs to start combos, I could use DS. DS has potentially a lot of room for skilled play with timing.

Evocation is huge in this build, -20% cooldowns applies to 4/6 of my skills. While this build has a lot of DPS (RoF, Crimson Meteor, Wave of Force, +30% DPS on any Frozen Nova victims, Glass Cannon Passive), it has even more room for skilled play with its utility (cooldown) options. Frost Nova, Wave of Force, Teleport, and Diamond Skin. With a proper rotation, not many enemies should get to you and those attack thats do will be generally avoided or absorbed.

Glass Cannon and Astral Presence are both choices to increase Fire Power. I'll take the +10% damage taken for +20% damage dealt and of course a higher AP pool and regen means more spells. Wave of Force and Meteor use up a lot of AP, so I feel AP would be a good help, especially without a true signature spell or virtuosu.

A typical sequence seemingly would be as followed:

Ray of Frost + Diamond Skin + Teleport into Mobs, Frost Nova, Teleport Away, Cast Meteor. Wave of Force remaining enemies unfrozen by Frost Nova. Diamond Skin again when projectiles fly towards you. While some cool downs reset, Ray of Frost some more. Soon enough all 4 skills (Teleport, Frost Nova, Wave of Force and Diamond Skin) will be ready to use again. A Crimson Meteor dropping on Frost Nova'd opponents will do major damage, as well as Wave of Force. I could use WoF before Frost Nova as well, either way. Spamming RoF in between cycles of cooldowns, Meteors on highly condensed areas or on Frozen targets.

Thoughts? Feedback welcome. Thanks :)

[Zokar]

Would be interesting to play that against something like this:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#deSaXb!YXT!ZYYcYY

Your goal is to stay away, the goal of this build is to pull things to me with 3 skills drawing enemies towards me from ranged. Would be a fun battle of who manages the right spells in the right order to keep distance in their favor.

[Npballer]

Nice. I haven't checked out the barbarian much but your build looks pretty solid. Would indeed be an exciting fight.

[Inarius]

I would change it up abit and go (nearly) full ice:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#jcliZV!Ted!baacZY

- black ice passive instead of glass cannon, which also means most of the time +20% damage, but always without the -10% debuff on resistances and armor.
- blizzard instead of meteor
- teleport with safe passage instead of wormhole. wormhole doesnt give you a real benefit in PvP I think. better to be safe with 25% less damage for 10 seconds
- diamond skin: I'd prefer enduring skin, just to have a large timeframe to activate diamon skin.

[Elfik]

Yeah I like the build. It's like your previous one but with wave of force I think. The combination of wave of force, frost nova, and teleport is a good one. All three have cooldowns but you can either spread them out, or use them in quick succession to zip through tough monster packs. Also the combination of diamond skin, meteor, and ray frost is good. You can use a hammer and anvil tactic whereby your character is the anvil, using diamond skin to survive an onslaught meanwhile raining down a meteor and ray of frosting the closest enemy.

I think Blizzard would be a fine spell as well, but meteor suits the quick burst of diamond skin better than Blizzard, which is good at slowing wearing down enemies. With Blizzard I would rather have skills like slow time and magic missile, than diamond skin and ray of frost.

Also black ice looks good to replace glass cannon with the lack of -10% debuff, but you'd have to specialize in ice attacks and you don't want to do that.

As for the safe passage teleport skill-rune, I agree. For me, it's the only rune I would consider for teleport because it looks so good on paper to reduce damage by 25%. I'm assuming that it does exactly what it says, but I would guess that Blizzard will nerf it to provide something more reasonable, or for a shorter duration? It seems too good to be true, considering energy armour increases armour by 20%, and chilling armour no longer increases armour like it used to.