What about skill/build progression, until you can actually fully use your builds?

[melianor]

What i have been wondering about for quite some time is, how build progression will work out, until you can actually utilize your complete build. Keep in mind that until your wizard reaches level 60 your build will be hampered and lack some of its features. So what will you do about it. I feel the the new skill progression presentation on the official site will help along that.

Is there an optimal choice for each level that you should choose to follow until the wizard reaches level 60?
Is there a pattern we can follow until our desired builds pan out and can be used to their full extent?

In the beta i already found, that i would simply choose to leave out some new skills and skill runes i learned, since i found them less powerful at that stage, than others, mostly aiming for the maximum damage i would be able to achieve, since at these lower levels protection is not something to worry about.

For example in Diablo II there is basically a pattern that you can follow until your build becomes worth using, like go melee in the beginning until you mana pool rises, use leaf runeword as soon as it becomes available and so forth.

So what would imagine based on our current knowledge, how this progression would pan out?

[stillman]

I'm rather fussy, so I will put up with grinding gear a little longer to only use skills I want rather than using temp ones that may be technically better at the time.

[kar]

Messing around with the build calculator, it seems pretty easy to come up with well-rounded builds as the game progresses. It's the themed builds that tend to suffer since they might feel lacking without one particular rune or passive that doesn't unlock until the later levels. Personally I plan to experiment with just about everything while leveling 1-60.

I suppose one exception would be a hc character who always must consider the "theme" of survival.

Edit: Another exception would be pvp if they have some kind of level-restricted arena play

[Elfik]

Yeah I think some skill-runes will be essential at certain levels for optimal play, and I think they could have handled skill progression better than this preset linear progression, which harkens back to skill trees in some ways.

With fewer possibilities in the lower levels, certain skill-runes or builds will be preferred, and certain skill-runes will be shunned. Once level 25 or so, there is pretty good variety, so I'm just looking forward to that and I'll use whatever skills are most efficient until then.

At least all the signatures unlock fairly early, so there will be a lot of variety for that skill slot.

[xSixCHeeSY]

Obviously since most of the content is unknown, I've neglected defensive skills. I will only switch those in as needed, otherwise, this is my tentative progression:

1. Magic Missile
2. Add Ray of Frost
3. Same
4. Add Frost Nova
5. Change Frost Nova to Arcane Orb
6. Add Charged Blast Rune (Magic Missile)
7. Add Numb Rune (Ray of Frost)
8. Same
9. Add Wave of Force
10. Add Power Hungry
11. Add Obliteration Rune (Arcane Orb)
12. Same
13. Same
14. Add Frost Nova + Shatter Rune (Frost Nova)
15. Change Magic Missile to Electrocute, Add Snow Blast Rune (Ray of Frost), Add Impactful Wave Rune (Wave of Force)
16. Same
17. Change Frost Nova to Storm Armor
18. Same
19. Add Explosive Blast
20. Add Prodigy, Change Storm Armor to Magic Weapon (Diamond Skin + Prism Rune) available for bosses)
21. Same
22. Add Force Affinity Rune (Wave of Force), Add Chain Lightning Rune (Electrocute)
23. Same
24. Add Unleashed Rune (Explosive Blast), Change Prodigy to Astral Presence, Change Electrocute to Diamond Skin + Prism Rune
25. Same
26. Same
27. Add Electrify Rune (Magic Weapon)
28. Same
29. Time Warp Rune (Slow Time) Available for Boss
30. Add Glass Cannon, Switch Wave of Force with Familiar + Sparkflint Rune (Familiar), Archon available, Cold Blooded available for bosses
31. Wormhole Rune (Teleport) Available
32. Add Arcane Nova Rune (Arcane Orb)
33. Same
34. Same
35. Add Force Weapon Rune (Magic Weapon)
36. Same
37. Same
38. Same
39. Same
40. Same
41. Same
42. Magic Missile with Attunement Rune Available

55.Add Celestial Orb Rune (Arcane Orb)
60.Improved Archon Available (Archon)

[Elfik]

xsixCheesy, your final build is force weapon, celestial orb, deep freeze, chain lightning, unleashed, sparkflint?

It's an interesting progression and it kind of proves my point. I think a lot of people will do a very similar progression up to about lvl 15. For example, I don't think the optimal choice is to pick storm armour over frost nova, but it might be viable or even optimal for all I know. But up to lvl ~15, builds will be eerily similar.

[xSixCHeeSY]

Well that all depends, right. If the environment is too hard, I'll have to grab something defensive. My plan absent having to get defensive skills is to rotate in Ray of Frost + Snow Blast and Slow Time + Time Warp for Frost Nova/Explosive Blast for bosses.

[Elfik]

Well frost nova might be quite useful for bosses in inferno even with stuns being less effective. A small stun on a boss is still one attack, and if all else fails you can use that to whittle down the boss's HP. A small stun on a mob may be less useful because the stun won't hit the whole mob, so other monsters will still move towards you at full speed or attack with ranged attacks.

[melianor]

Slowing and freezing effects are still some of the most useful effect in crowd control and attack delay on opponents.

I like the progression you posted xSixCHeeSY. Until a certain level the build will potentially look identical. When we have more knowledge about the game will be available we might even see a general leveling pattern, though this kind of leveling we saw in Diablo II might not be something we do often anymore since we can modify our characters skills at any time in the game.

[jamesL]

I started a similar thread awhile back

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...-of-your-build

how detailed is the planning of your build ?
are you planning every step of the way (every time a skill slot opens?)
or are you only planning your level 60 build ?

most of the replies said they're only planning their level 60 build and that they plan on trying all skills and runes as they get them