PvE Cold + meteor wizard build

[The Lich]

Hi all,

By reading the forum, asking questions and using the skill planner, I have come up with a PvE cold + meteor wizard build:
Link to uploaded screenshot: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...enshotdwr.png/
(for an unknown reason, when I link to D3 calculator, the runes do not appear)

The idea of this character is to reduce the AP cost of my spells enough to be able to use blizzard (snowbound) one time, then spam Ray of Frost (Cold blooded) and/or Meteor (Star Pact). To mf pretty fast, I can Teleport (Wormhole). To slow down monster, I can Slow Time (Time Warp). However, as present below, I am hesitating between Slow Time and Frost Nova.

I have 3 questions about this build:

1) Is a 60 AP meteor sustainable in the general context of: a 12 AP Ray of Frost (cold blood), a 20 AP blizzard (snowbound), a +20 AP Energy Armor (Energy Tap) and a +20 AP and +2 regeneration Astral presence? If not, I’ll go for 35 AP meteor (star pact)

1.1) If a 60 AP meteor is sustainable with my setup, which of those 2 runes do you think is the best: Molten impact (for more fire damage and a non-cold spell which is very useful vs cold immunes) or Comet (converting the damage to cold would make the Cold Blooded passive apply, which would make even more damage than the +fire option, however then I would be vulnerable to cold immunes).

2) Frost nova or Slow time : which of those 2 will help the most to max out DPS from other skills like Blizzard, Ray of Frost and meteor in the PvE context ?

2.1) Which rune do you prefer for [Frost Nova or Slow time] ?

For Slow time, I was thinking about Time Warp, since I really like the (multiplicative?) 20% damage bonus.

For Frost nova, I was thinking about Bone chill.

3) Do you have any general comments or questions about this cold + meteor build ?

I thank you in advance for any constructive comment or question !

[ElementEight]

Something's wrong with it; you're missing runes and passive skills.

[Elfik]

Well it's hard to comment without more knowledge on runestones and passives.

But anyway, if you were to take time warp, I'd suggest also taking the molten impact rune in order to take the most advantage out of the buff. But star pact would still be a good choice. Since you also have blizzard in there, and ray of frost, I would ultimately suggest star pact as the best choice, because your build is heavy on arcane power use.

Adding to maximum arcane power helps, but the extra AP regen from astral presence will be key if you're going to substitute ray of frost for a signature skill. In case you don't know, ray of frost/cold blooded is not actually free it costs 12 AP per second, more if using faster weapons. I think you'll need another skill to boost AP regen like familiar/arcanot or storm armour/power of the storm or diamond skin/prism.

[The Lich]

Thanks for saying that the link doesn't work properly: does it work ok now ? I took a screenshot and uploaded it.

Yea, I'd like to take the Molten impact rune for meteor, but exactly as you thought, my build relies heavily on AP usage with Blizzard (snowbound) and Ray of frost (cold blooded), so I probably need to use star pact on meteor.

Agreed on Astral presence: I alright have it, as you will now be able to see with the upgraded link. Yea, I know about the 12 AP instead of 0 AP from the calculator, but it's wise to remind people since it's a big difference.

However, I did not know that the speed of the spells is affected by the speed of the weapon. Thanks for that information !

Now that you can see the complete picture, any more comments ? http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...enshotdwr.png/

[Elfik]

It's something hardrock and others have tested and apparently weapon speed affects the damage of DoTs as well. So with a faster weapon of equal damage, you might actually increase Blizzard's damage above the listed %, assuming blizzard is a DoT, but I'm not sure it is.

But yeah, channeled skills will inrease in both damage and resource cost when using faster weapons.

As for more comments, just that I'd probably add diamond skin/prism in there instead of slow time.
1) it helps with your AP problems
2) it's a good defensive skill when standing still
3) you'll be standing still when using ray of frost
4) if you are standing still and cast blizzard/meteor right in front of you, the monsters have to stay in the DoT area of effect, so it can help control monster movement
5) you already have a slowing skill, blizzard, and slows don't stack in amplitude, only in duration

[ElementEight]

Meteor and Blizzard both fall in the category of "secondary-ish" arcane power spenders, in that they are meant to be used to support the more reliables Ray of Frost (in this case, you are using it, but as your primary without a signature), Arcane Orb, Arcane Torrent or Disintegrate. Which themselves are meant to be supported by "signature skills", free and weak. Until you get a better understanding of the class (which most if not all of us don't even), you should stick to a signature > primary spender > secondary spender > cc > buff > wildcard style of a build, and choose these according to your passives.

[The Lich]

@Elfik: your 5 arguments in favor of diamond skin (prism) made me go from "nah, I prefer XYZ" to "geez, this seems quite good !". However, I have one question about that skill: can I have a diamond skin (prism) active at the same time that energy armor (energy tap) ?

@ElementEight: I do not know about you, but I do not find the signature spells attractive ! :(
And what do you mean by "cc" and "buff" ?

[ElementEight]

@ElementEight: I do not know about you, but I do not find the signature spells attractive ! :(
And what do you mean by "cc" and "buff" ?

Signature spells aren't attractive, but they're free. Arcane power (your resource) drains very quickly, generally in less than 6 seconds. While it rechares, you need something to do.

CC = crowd control = something to deter your enemies from attacking you. Frost Nova is a crowd control spell because it freezes enemies. Frozen enemies don't move or attack.

Buff = something that improves your statistics. Magic Weapon is an example of buff.

[melianor]

However, I have one question about that skill: can I have a diamond skin (prism) active at the same time that energy armor (energy tap) ?

Diamond Skin is not an armor spell, so yes you can have Diamond Skin and an armor spell of your choice active at the same time.

[melianor]

Any of the AOE spells will only be viable if you have some way of generating AP, through skills or passives. Through skills this is in my opinion rather silly, since there are many better choice than having an AP generator on your skill. AOE spells will be nothing on constant cast, but with the right use of signature skills you can easily recreate your AP pool fast enough to actually use them a lot more often.