Melee Wizard Build

[Snerra]

I completely agree with HardRock. A lot of the wizard's defensive skills have offensive potential because of runes - and a bunch of those benefit from being in melee range. To name a few that HardRock didn't mention:

Teleport/Calamity Rune
Frost Nova/Deep Freeze
Slow Time/Stretch Time

Then there's Explosive Blast, which as HardRock says, is far from unimpressive (in damage, that is; I agree it's bland and unimaginative in concept and visuals). With the Obliterate rune it becomes the Wizard's most damaging spell save for Meteor, I believe.

Here's a slightly different take on the melee wizard: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WQXhfg!Wga!acccaZ Of course, we don't know the range of chilling aura, but I imagine it wont exactly be Holy Freeze. Still, just being close to an enemy increases your damage by 20%. Teleport becomes a skill you can safely use offensively, to pick of ranged attackers. I'm not saying it's stronger or more effective than a ranged wizard, just that a melee wizard seems completely viable and interesting.

[galzohar]

The runes and passives in your link don't show, but remember explosive blast has a 6 second cooldown, and thus is just an "extra" spell, and not a primary attack.

If anything, I'd go for something like this:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...dOh!aYc!cacbcY

Where you can really use any spender instead of arcane orb (for example, frost meteor or any meteor would be cool), maybe replace wave of force with frost nova (more defense, less damage), and maybe play around with the passives and the rune of diamond skin a bit, though for this kind of build most passives aren't all that impressive really.

The biggest problem with short-ranged wizard is that:
1. No real spam-able spender that provides good damage at the cost of range - They're all ranged!
2. Trying to get some defenses does eat up a lot of skill (and passive) slots that could be used for even more damage.

I'd probably be happier with a build like this:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...SfR!TYW!aYcZaY
And depends on how magic weapon works (say, if it doesn't increase spell damage), replace mirror image, archon or teleport.
But then again it really depends on how effective meteor really is, because 240% damage for 60 arcane power seems a bit weak if it doesn't make up for it with good enough AOE and damage over time that actually hits enemies.

[aHero]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...QXO!fgb!YZYZYZ

I'm going to go with something like this. Stack +crit to the point where my all my cooldowns come up every 6 - 8 seconds, and explosive blast can be spammed every 2 - 3 seconds.

[waijie]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...dTY!acb!bbZbaa
My build~

Spectral sword for AP generating, Arcane Nova for AP spending,
Slow time, Frost Nova, Wave of Force for crowd control, and an extra armor spell.

Only rune that would be fixed would be Arcane Nova (PBAOE), all other skills can change their runes around to suit different purposes.
Different armor spells can be used depending on whether more damage , defense or utility needed.

A question, can shatter of frost nova be chained? If it can be chained, it should be quite nice defensively.

[HardRock]

Nope, it can't. Only the original victims of your Frost Nova can shatter into addtional novae, so the maximum duration for the freeze with Shatter is 6 seconds on the original targets with a perfectly timed kill.

[galzohar]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...QXO!fgb!YZYZYZ

I'm going to go with something like this. Stack +crit to the point where my all my cooldowns come up every 6 - 8 seconds, and explosive blast can be spammed every 2 - 3 seconds.

You still probably won't be able to use all your AP, even if you do manage to reduce cooldowns so much. Not spending your AP is a big damage loss!

If you're going to get hit a lot, not sure if 2 extra seconds on diamond skin will be better than just making it do damage when it wears off or make it absorb more (with the extra absorption probably being the best for the squishy wizard).

The galvanizing ward passive just seems unimpressive to me. Try blur instead for melee damage reduction. You'll probably need it.

Might want to replace teleport with another cooldown skill such as slow time.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...dTY!acb!bbZbaa
My build~

Blur as your only defense will probably not be enough, considering barbs and monks already have overall 30% damage reduction and still have defensive abilities. If you want to stay close range and live you'll probably need a lot more defense than that. Frost nova and slow time are nice defenses but I doubt they'll cut it without also having some more raw damage reduction. Consider energy armor instead of storm armor. Also, just wave of force and spectral blade as a "damage boost for being in melee" doesn't seem to be enough either.

[aHero]

You still probably won't be able to use all your AP, even if you do manage to reduce cooldowns so much. Not spending your AP is a big damage loss!

I'll only have 80 arcane power to start with. If I approach a group of mobs teleport once>frost nova>explosive blast that's already 35 arcane power, almost half. It would be over half if I needed a second or third teleport. Obviously we can't tell how fast arcane power will regen with better gear.

At the moment I'll need to be generating a fourth of my pool every 5.1 seconds, not including crits just in order to pop explosive blast every time it is off cooldown.

If you're going to get hit a lot, not sure if 2 extra seconds on diamond skin will be better than just making it do damage when it wears off or make it absorb more (with the extra absorption probably being the best for the squishy wizard).

I'll definitely change my diamond skin rune if needed. It really depends on how hard the monsters are hitting and for how long. There is no way to tell at this point.

The galvanizing ward passive just seems unimpressive to me. Try blur instead for melee damage reduction. You'll probably need it.

I am sure resistance is going to be way more important than melee damage reduction past normal/nightmare.

Might want to replace teleport with another cooldown skill such as slow time.

You would take way too much damage if you have to gather up monsters by running to group them up, so teleport is kind of mandatory. Especially in a game like Diablo, positioning is very important and can make or break whether or not you survive a pack of mobs. Also with no ranged spells, you'll need to get in and out of fights somehow.

[galzohar]

Base arcane power is 10/sec. It only goes up from there, and probably won't go up much with gear. With the cooldowns on your abilities, even with no extra regen, you'll end up with full arcane power before the battle is over if it lasts more than a few seconds. Remember with 80 AP, even if you drain it completely (which means you need to spend more than 80 AP because some will regenerate while you're casting), it'll still be back to full in no more than 8 seconds. So not getting a spender here really wastes a lot of damage to the point where your build doesn't justify the extra damage taken for fighting at close range!

Galvinizing Ward doesn't give resistances. It gives extra duration for your armor and some small amount of health regeneration.

If you want to teleport in, at least use either the damage reduction, mirror image or wave of force rune effects for it. You shouldn't really need the double teleport to be aggressive - It's really more of a rune effect you'd need if you're using teleport to run away (where 1 teleport just won't teleport you far enough and you'll want to teleport again).

I'm also not sure how great it really is to teleport in. When things get difficult, you might want to start working on the "edge" of the pack, losing some AOE sure but also taking less damage and thus giving youself a chance to survive. Only time will tell what will be more effective, but I doubt you'll be able to teleport into a pack without some significant amount of added defenses in various forms (likely more than just diamond skin, energy armor and frost nova).

[Argent Star]

Here is my idea for a wizard who prefers to fight in melee range:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...glO!aWf!bYaZZc

The basic idea is working with the strengths of chilling effects and cold-blooded, combined with sleet storm (which gives me a powerful, close-range AoE AP spender). Diamond skin is purely defensive, while slow time gives me some defensive strength, as well as a close-range offensive boost.

Blizzard gives me a long-range ability (to either start a fight, or if I can't reach an enemy), while I can also drop it on myself for damage and chilling, with a chance of freezing (for a bit of extra defense). Energy armor and galvanizing ward give me some physical and elemental resistance, with a bit of life regen.

I'm actually a little worried I may be spending too much AP here, with blizzard's 45 and sleet storm being 20 a second, but spectral blades should be ok to give me reasonable damage at low AP, and help me get back up to high amounts more quickly.

[galzohar]

Here is my idea for a wizard who prefers to fight in melee range:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...glO!aWf!bYaZZc

Maybe use the rune that gives Blizzard a cheaper cost or longer duration, change the rune on spectral blade for healing, and use the cooldown reduction passive instead of galvanizing ward so that you can use diamond skin and slow time more often (but then again 15% doesn't seem all that much). If slow time cooldown still proves to be a problem (as in, if you need it mostly for defensive reasons and less for damage increasing), you can always change to the cooldown reduction rune too. Of course, in the end you'll have to just try and see how it works out and then decide on those things.