Melee Wizard Build

[galzohar]

I brought up "spectral blade only is bad" because at least one of the builds mentioned in this thread seemed to be made by someone who thinks otherwise

In any case, I'm really not impressed by any of the "melee" builds posted here, compared to what you could have done if you didn't restrict yourself to short range. The only spell that really seems to have a big benefit to compensate for its short range is spectral blade, and as a signature spell we all know it's going to compose a relatively small % of your total damage.

[HardRock]

I brought up "spectral blade only is bad" because at least one of the builds mentioned in this thread seemed to be made by someone who thinks otherwise

You should use the quote feature next time.

In any case, I'm really not impressed by any of the "melee" builds posted here, compared to what you could have done if you didn't restrict yourself to short range. The only spell that really seems to have a big benefit to compensate for its short range is spectral blade, and as a signature spell we all know it's going to compose a relatively small % of your total damage.

Relying on skills that have a short range definitely has it's drawbacks and losing damage may be one of them.

As for Spectral Blade, boosting AP regen may make it completely worthless, but I think with the base regen signature skills will improve our DPS significantly. We'll see.

[galzohar]

Improve DPS definitely, but be a big portion of your DPS? Probably not, considering how often you can cast spenders and how much damage over how big of an AOE they're capable of. If you cast 1-2 signature spells for each spender (or even more for the bigger spenders like meteor), quite a bit more than 1/2 of your damage will still come from the spender.

This is very different from a barb/monk where it seems like most damage will come from the generator since you have to cast it a few times to get a single spender cast which isn't all that much more damage (at least with some AOE generator). For DH I'm not sure, it seems more equal, at least with bola and rapid fire in beta. For WD it seems similar to wizard, but we'll have to see how mana works later on in the game (might be the same, yet it also might change, since it's the only resource that actually changes with level in some way).


Short-range spells have the downside of vulnerability and wasting time on movement, so at the very least they should have the advantage of damage and/or helping your defenses in some way. Currently the only skill that seems to make up for its range by a good measure is spectral blade, and again, that's a signature skill so it's not a very significant one to warrant gearing yourself towards short-ranged combat.

[HardRock]

To honest, I'll be perfectly fine with taking certain penalties for playing a melee Wizard. In my opinion a Wizard can make short ranged combat look even more epic than a Barb or a Monk.

Does anyone have the link for the video, where a high-level melee Wizard was shown off by Jay Wilson? That was seriously one of the best videos released of D3 in my opinion.

[djxput]

I had a barb build I was eyeing upon release; but not overly impressed with the barbs aoe skills - and realized the wizard has may skills similar to a barb;
spectal blade - cleave
igonore pain - diamond skin
war cry - energy armor
threatening shout - slow time
leap - teleport

you get the picture ... so this lead me to wonder if the wizard would actually be better then a barb for upclose melee combat. Leap appears better then teleport when you look at the effects and the cooldown; but diamon skin looks like it could be used 2x as often as ignore pain. Energy armor looks better then warcry (although for a group warcry is obviously better); and threatening shout and slow time is a toss up ...

the last skill for a barb and wizard could be interchangable - some kind of aoe up close skill ... eg whirlwind, explosive blast ...

last but not least the barb has a 30% overall damage reduction (is this all damage then? or just melee?) - and the barb can have more skills with life regen or steal, the barb has a few various options with life steal or regen; from blood thirst to revenge or inspiring presence or even overpower. So its quite easy to implement a health regen/steal with the barb. More of a challenge with the wizard; he has only a couple options; either choosing to do so via the passive armor buff; or the spectral blade rune or the magic weapon rune. Not many options - I like the magic weapon route but consider slow time a better skill; and group friendly.

The 30% damage reduction - well the wizard has a 20% melee resistance passive that is decent and a better armor skill energy armor ... but is this enough? ... diamond skin can come on 2x as much as ignore pain. Im tempted to say its a wash here or maybe even in favor of the wizard.

Might have to roll both to start and to actually see which one works out better; tough to theorize and get a accurate picture.

[HardRock]

is this all damage then? or just melee?

It's all damage.

[HardRock]

Does anyone have the link for the video, where a high-level melee Wizard was shown off by Jay Wilson? That was seriously one of the best videos released of D3 in my opinion.

I've found it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Zd7YD3uuM&t=9m24s

[Blitu]

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...Build-TeleBomb
Nice build, no spectral blade but you play at melee range, looks funny if you're not one-shot killed.

[galzohar]

I've found it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Zd7YD3uuM&t=9m24s

So, slow time, wave of force, spectral blade, explosive blast and diamond skin. Normal attack instead of a real AP spender. With explosive blast being unimpressive and wave of force having big enough AOE to not require defensive abilities, again the biggest perk of this build is spectral blade really, which again as I said seem not enough to justify requiring extra defenses.

A short range wizard would be cool, sure (though again I wouldn't call him "melee"), but it really feels like the short-range abilities (other than spectral blade which is not enough since it's still just a weak signature skill) are simply underwhelming.

[HardRock]

I think Diamond Shards and Time Warp provide enough offensive advantage for the Wizard in short range that will help to justify that you have to take defensive skills to get them. Also, Explosive Blast is absolutely beastly with any of its runes (I prefer Chain Reaction or Obliterate) for a Wizard like this. The Reversal rune of Teleport could be used to do neat tricks with a melee Wizard as well.

As for the name, it's a build that's most effective in melee range, just like a Barb or a Monk. For me it's a melee Wizard.