Disintegrate and Slow Weapons: How to Sweep

[Jedouard]

Just a thought to share...

There are at least a few ways to make Wizard builds that use Disintegrate as the primary attack, foregoing the freebie skills. You can take advantage of any of these skills: Diamond Skin/Prism, Storm Armor/Power of the Storm, Familiar/Arcanot, Astral Presence and Power Hungry. There are also items that return AP on crit and, apparently, there will be an affix on hats/helms that reduce Disintegrate's cost by 1-5 AP.

I've made a few builds based off using some of these skills (and now some of these items) so that Disintegrate could be my primary attack. (I haven't really taken items into consideration on these builds, because I am not sure how available they will be late game.) However, when I got in the beta, it hit me that I had forgotten that the tick rate for Disintegrate is based on weapon speed while AP regen is per second.

I never actually got to use Disintegrate in the beta, but Ray of Frost works similarly, so I used it to do some testing. Long story short, I was running out of AP at about 1.7 times the rate I predicted, which wouldn't be a big deal if I were hitting one target since I would also be doing 1.7 times the damage in that amount of time, but I was testing to sweep rooms since that is my plan with Disintegrate. I couldn't sustain the cast long enough to handle multiple enemies. This didn't bode well for my builds since there is no way they could regenerate fast enough. That was depressing...

Until I found out that Ray of Frost (and thus most likely Disintegrate) immediately does damage upon making contact with an enemy and then reverts to its tick. I pulled out a heavy hitting, but slow (1 attack per second) two-hander and started to test. It worked great. My damage was higher and even though the tick rate was lower, targets took damage immediately upon contact. All I had to do was keep sweeping back and forth.

If it stays this way come release, then I should be able to achieve my original design goal by wielding a slow weapon. I'll still go after a slow, but damaging single-hander so I don't have to worry about losing the benefits of the off-hand or shield, but if worst comes to worst, I suppose I'll go with a slow, but powerful two-hander. I just hope two-handers will have more and/or better affixes since they take up both hands and that those affixes will be useful for a Wizard.

That should tide me over until I can find a "-5 AP for Disintegrate" hat, which will drop my Disintegrate costs to 12 with Storm Armor - easy enough to counter with AP generation from skills and items.

[melianor]

So slow weapons do have a a use after all, considering immediate damage before the tick sets in! Talk about variety of builds...

[galzohar]

Not sure about how they'll make channeling spells work in the end, but it's pretty obvious that if you want to avoid casting your signature spell, not to mention make a build without a signature spell, you definitely need to go with a slow weapon. Heck, slow weapons are already better if given equal stats and DPS regardless of which build you're using - Faster weapons only gain an advantage when you give them more/better stats and/or higher DPS, and even that really depends on how much! In beta, for example, using a 20 DPS level 10 sword would be significantly better than just about any wand+orb combo I could find or see others using, probably even with damage rings.

[etezo]

its not set.
First of all slow attack speed will be problem the further you go - as if you would have 1.0s attack frame it means you need to wait 1s after casing e.g. frost nova to cast something else. Also channeled spells keep you in place.

Second thing is that to be able to maintain long channel you need to keep attack frame low - will that be possible? a 10% attack speed will add 10% more damage to the channeled spell (assuming 0 previous bonuses) - will we be able to skip this stat in late game?

finally with prodigy and arcanemissile/attunement you just need 1.5 attacks per second to get 12 arcane power per second and that doubles arcane power reg.

So while slow weapons and channeled spells are sure appealing for wizzard they wont be dominating.

[Jedouard]

its not set.
First of all slow attack speed will be problem the further you go - as if you would have 1.0s attack frame it means you need to wait 1s after casing e.g. frost nova to cast something else. Also channeled spells keep you in place.

Second thing is that to be able to maintain long channel you need to keep attack frame low - will that be possible? a 10% attack speed will add 10% more damage to the channeled spell (assuming 0 previous bonuses) - will we be able to skip this stat in late game?

finally with prodigy and arcanemissile/attunement you just need 1.5 attacks per second to get 12 arcane power per second and that doubles arcane power reg.

So while slow weapons and channeled spells are sure appealing for wizzard they wont be dominating.

I don’t expect the build to dominate, just to be viable.

To respond to your points…

(1) Slow attack speed will delay you casting other spells.

Are you sure about this? I don’t recall any sort of delay in the beta between casting two different spells. Maybe the delay was just short enough that I didn’t notice.

(2) Channelled spells keep you stationary.

Anyone who decided to undertake a channelling build should keep this in mind. I certainly am with the build I have designed and its variations.

(3) It will be difficult to skip the “+X% attack speed” modifiers on items.

Good point. You might be right. On the other hand, given the number of items out there, I think it will be possible. It might even be easy since there’s a chance that people will be after items that increase speed. Items without this mod might abound.

(4) Signature spells in combination with the Prodigy Passive, will allow for more resource regeneration.

Well, this is just a different build idea. Lightning/Chain Lightning would yield you even more, with 6 targets each yielding 4 resource in addition to allowing for your regular regeneration. I plan on using this dynamic in a different build, but the specific dynamic I am after with channelling Disintegrate cannot really be replaced with Prodigy and a signature spell.

[bugmenotplease]

Sounds cool. We know DW needs a fix so Im planning to use a build like this with a 2h http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...iRQ!UXa!YYZbaZ for leveling and fun ofc. Give me some constructive criticism about it. I want to have teleport and arcane based spells. Im wondering if it will be any good in late inferno and early hell.

[superpenguinx]

disentegrate is a spell that doesn't fit in well with ideals... it's kinda AE but not. it's kinda ok against single target, but ray of frost is better

[ElementEight]

disentegrate is a spell that doesn't fit in well with ideals... it's kinda AE but not. it's kinda ok against single target, but ray of frost is better

Disintegrate is just different. It's damage per ap ratio is up there with every other spender. It just happens to be really good in situations where enemies line up, something that happens quite often in D3.

[magicrectangle]

disentegrate is a spell that doesn't fit in well with ideals... it's kinda AE but not. it's kinda ok against single target, but ray of frost is better

What do you mean it is not AoE? It is definitely AoE. It can often hit more targets than Blizzard does. Just because the area it effects is a rectangle instead of a circle doesn't mean it isn't AoE. Add volatility (my favorite rune for it) and it is a pretty hilariously cool AE against trash mobs.

[dastral]

From what i see you have options for DPS selection as a wizard :

Fast Attacker => Auto Attacker using all your other spells for CC & Survivability & AE.
Skills :Frost Nova + Diamond Skin + Teleport + Familiar + Magic Missile + Arcane Orb/Arcane Hydra/Blizzard
Passive: Glass Canon + Temporal Flux + Illusionist

I think this is the best option for "boss fights" and "outdoors" the single target DPS is quite good.
You do lack an AP dump with Hydra or Blizzard but you should never ever die.
I prefer familiar over magic weapon because it synergises well with Hydra and kiting and Projectiles
(Damage is still done even if you are running around like a headless chicken).



Channeler with a Slow 2H => Desintegrate or Ray of Frost.
Skills : Frost Nova + Diamond Skin + Frost Armor + Familiar + Ray of Frost + Disintegrate
Passive : Glass Cannon + Astral Presence + Cold Blooded

The idea is to stack regen & cost reduce to be able to channel your rays for ever.
I do not like this build at all, the single target DPS is amazing the AE/Corridor damage is obscene but you
give up on mobility and survivability .

It can work with a very tank/protective setup, still with so many "pops" "blinks" "adds" giving up mobility...



Combo Wizard => Blizzard/Hydra/Orb or Archon/Arcane Orb something similar.
Still can't wrap my head around it. Builds based on Synergy like Arcane Dynamo, Conflagration, etc