Melee Wizard Build

**djxput** · 08-05-2012, 11:30

Funny you (agent star) only have 1 post but I consider your build to be one of the best. Wondering if sleet storm you need to hold the button down to keep it up or how that will work ... have I said I really like your choice of skills? ... they seem like they would work well with each other.
The use of blizzard and then a close range ability ...

Ive worked on a few different melee builds; havnt tried a cold centric build yet thou -

Ive been messing around with builds since the calc first came out ... while I really like the wizards skills; I find its passive skill list pretty subpar - while the monk has tons of passives that make it hard to choose; imo the wizard has but a few passives that are just decent (I mean 1/3 of the passives are taken up by individual elements). (whining ya I know

**HardRock** · 08-05-2012, 11:34

Originally Posted by djxput

Wondering if sleet storm you need to hold the button down to keep it up or how that will work

Sleet Storm is still a channeled skill so yes, you do have to keep its hotkey pressed down.

**galzohar** · 08-05-2012, 12:47

Originally Posted by HardRock

Sleet Storm is still a channeled skill so yes, you do have to keep its hotkey pressed down.

Yes, so better pop that diamond skin before you start channeling.

Anyway, it definitely looks like one of the better builds posted around here.

**Argent Star** · 08-05-2012, 14:25

Thanks for the kind words on the build. Honestly, it was mostly taken from people's comments in earlier post - sleet storm to fill the AP spender role, then cold-blooded seemed a natural fit, then things went from there.

One weakness might be single-target, since all my damage spells are AoE, but then I remember the sleet storm rune doesn't actually lose any damage from unruned ray of frost, which is considered good single-target damage. However, I guess I do lose the rune for either damage (snow blast) or efficiency (cold blood) against single targets.

I like your suggestions too, galzohar. Blizzard would probably be better with the AP reduction rune, letting me either cover a wider area, or just use sleet storm more. I think critical mass (chance to reduce CDs by 1 sec on a crit) might be a good passive to replace galvanizing ward, but that really depends on how high the 'chance' is. If it's a reasonable chance, then my AoE damage should be getting a decent number of crits, since I'd only need it to happen 3 times (for slow time) to be the same reduction as evocation.

I have no idea if the healing rune on siphoning blades is good, but considering it looks like I'll be wanting crit anyway, I can see it being rather useful. There's always the option to use ice armor with crystallize, for the same armor boost and the chance to chill/freeze, but that depends on how good the +40% resists from a runed energy armor is.

(This is what I'm thinking of as an updated build, by the way):
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...abc!aWg!YYaZbc

**galzohar** · 08-05-2012, 15:23

The rune on Blizzard would eventually depend on what blizzard is actually meant for. If it actually adds a significant amount of damage, maybe the increased duration/damage would be better. If it's meant for slowing (no idea if the cold damage slows), maybe reduced cost would be better so you can move into an already slowed pack of enemies. Hard to tell how Blizzard will work or how useful it'll be. If sleet storm ROF slows enough on its own and makes the passive do its thing and doesn't end up adding all that much damage, it might actually be redundant and could be replaced by something else like mirror image, archon or explosive blast.

Usefulness of healing rune is definitely hard to judge. Going without any healing is a bit scary, though, but then again wizard doesn't really have any good healing options anyway, so maybe he should be playable without healing anyway when stacking enough defensive abilities, and then just use the AOE/range increase or AP regen on instead.

With int giving resistances and wizards stacking int anyway, a resistance boost has potential to be quite powerful, though it's hard to predict how will it compare to the armor boost.

I think single-target is a bit over-rated. Most classes just have to give up way too much just to gain some single target capability, to the point where the survivability and/or overall damage loss is likely to not be worth it. Sure, Jay Wilson said we'll care about single target, but I just don't see how the extra damage of the single-target skills justifies the extra skill slot, even if we have to eventually fight single targets relatively often (but not exclusively, of course, or else we could just ditch the AOE skills).

In any case, your link is broken, doesn't show runes/passives. Try to re-create the build and re-link.

**HardRock** · 08-05-2012, 15:39

Originally Posted by galzohar

In any case, your link is broken, doesn't show runes/passives. Try to re-create the build and re-link.

I've seen this problem mentioned a couple of times in the last few days, but since the link has all the required information to recreate a build (and it works just fine for me) I think the problem lies on people's end, who can't see the builds correctly. Please check whether the link at the opened calculator matches the one you clicked on here in the forum exactly. If it does, then try to clear your browser's cache by refreshing the calculator with CTRL+F5.

**Argent Star** · 08-05-2012, 18:36

Well, when linking my first build, I used the 'link' button and put the URL in there, while for the second, I just pasted the URL directly into the text. I changed the link for the second build to using 'link', and it seems to work now.

And about the comments on the build: yeah, it really feels like any changes at this point will come from actually playing the game and the build, and then getting a feel for strengths and weaknesses.

**galzohar** · 08-05-2012, 20:15

Copy pasting from the browser's address bar seems to work 100% of the time, at least in chrome.

Keep in mind he seems to have fixed his link, it is working now. With the old link, not only it was missing stuff, it was also buggy when trying to change skills (some skills were grayed out even though they weren't in use), and even the reset button couldn't fix things. Only re-loading the wizard page (by hitting the correct link on the battle.net site) fixed things.