Wizard, You Dropped A Bomb On Me Baby...

[Mefet]

"Arcane Torrent" + "Death Blossom" and "Archon" + "Arcane Destruction". Though the "Archon" has a long CD, you may use it only against elite/champ. I replaced the signature skill by "Disintegrate" + "Intensify" since without "Meteor" you don't have any high AP cost spell. Though to compensate for the lack of signature spell i put Astral Presence instead of "Unstable Anomaly".

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...dem!bYX!ccbbZa

[Greystone]

It would be assumed that you fire off frost nova first thing when porting into a pack to reduce/negate the damage. That would seem obvious.

LOL at Warmaku.

[stillman]

Like I said it's a theroetical build. It's a guess that the wave of force rune that increases damage, but reduces the knockback makes it more viable for the build I listed, but we won't know until tuesday. Arcane torrent with disruption would do 190% in a smaller aoe and require you to channel it while standing still for almost 5 seconds. With the build I listed you tp in and frost nova, cast meteor, explosive and then wave of force and reverse tp out. Theoretically you would take no damage or almost no damage because they mobs are frozen while you're casting. Consider that meteor would land right around the same time wave or force went off and then exposive blasts delayed damage right after that. All this aoe is going to effect at least a 12yd radius with wave of force effecting quite abit more. This build with no gear could do this combo every 16 seconds. But, this build can also stagger these abilities giving you double tp's, frost nova, wave of force and setting off explosive blasts while moving away. Basically you can always be on the move. You compare the witch doctor sacrifice skill which you can do only once every 60 seconds to get that kind of damage which would require the zombie handler passive except for when the zombie dog skill cd is up in which case you could blow your dogs up, re-summon and blow them up again. Even then you're going to pump out less aoe damage over time with that setup unless you devote an entire builds to sacrifice which may prove to be very effective, but we don't know yet.

But how do you kill that 16 seconds? It's a long time you're waiting for your cooldowns to end.

[Greystone]

As a theoretical build I would use evocation and critical mass passives for cd reduction while stacking a decent amount of crit.

Now that I'm playing the game I'm finding most of my theory crafting was pretty much worthless so at this point I'm done theorizing unless I've used the skills/runes and builds before talking about them.

[Greizer]

I hope they buff Wizards at some point; I played mine to lvl 35 before learning that even DH has better dmg and survival potential later on. From what I've read the problem seems to be the long cooldowns on the Wiz's 'panic button' skills combined with the fact that Arcane Orb is the only spell that does decent dmg in Hell/Inferno and what's more, that can be fired backwards while kiting away from the mobs. Ray of Frost and Disintegrate are useless on Inferno since you have to stop to channel them. In parties Wizards do much better since a Barb or Monk can do the tanking.

Edit: It doesn't help that they nerfed Teleport to Hell and back. Sure, it was op in D2, but now? You can't tele over chasms or even small obstacles... The skill has a 16(!) second cooldown... And to top off the hilarity, even if you use it as a 'panic' skill (which I guess is its intended use now), it leaves a lot to be desired. The mobs are so fast even on Nm that they find you in a few secs after teleporting, even if you take the rune that lets you tp twice.

Teleport was the staple Sorc spell in D2; a true Signature spell if there ever was one. Its current state is a definite shame. I'd buff it like this, based on my (very limited) experience:
1. Cooldown 8-10 secs
2. No Arcane power cost (or very low, it's like 15 now)
3. Can tele over chasms but not over walls (kinda weird, but it makes sense lore-wise: you have to see where you tele)
Maybe it's too powerful like this, but at least buff #3 is needed to make the skill useful imo.

[melianor]

Teleport was the staple Sorc spell in D2; a true Signature spell if there ever was one. Its current state is a definite shame. I'd buff it like this, based on my (very limited) experience:
1. Cooldown 8-10 secs
2. No Arcane power cost (or very low, it's like 15 now)
3. Can tele over chasms but not over walls (kinda weird, but it makes sense lore-wise: you have to see where you tele)
Maybe it's too powerful like this, but at least buff #3 is needed to make the skill useful imo.

Teleport is not meant to be like in Diablo II anymore. It's spell to get in to attack fast, or to escape, but not for travelling at all.

[Snerra]

Teleport is not meant to be like in Diablo II anymore. It's spell to get in to attack fast, or to escape, but not for travelling at all.

Even so, I still agree with Greizer. If we consider it a defensive skill, I'd pick any other option than teleport. As Greizer said, monsters move so fast, they'll quickly catch up. Then, if we instead try to use it as a skill for setting up attacks, it is also lacking - especially if you compare it to the barbarian's leap, which generates fury, deals damage, and has a lower CD (without runes!).

I suppose it's a little early to rule teleport out. But it seems clear that it wont be a skill that's useful for every build (unlike some other defensive skills, like Diamond Skin, which is good for all wizards). You will need to tailor your build heavily around teleport. Illusionist passive seems a must. Probably Blur and Wave of Force, too. It seems you would need heavy damage skills that you can fire off quickly, and then get safely out of there again.

[melianor]

Even so, I still agree with Greizer. If we consider it a defensive skill, I'd pick any other option than teleport. As Greizer said, monsters move so fast, they'll quickly catch up. Then, if we instead try to use it as a skill for setting up attacks, it is also lacking - especially if you compare it to the barbarian's leap, which generates fury, deals damage, and has a lower CD (without runes!).

I suppose it's a little early to rule teleport out. But it seems clear that it wont be a skill that's useful for every build (unlike some other defensive skills, like Diamond Skin, which is good for all wizards). You will need to tailor your build heavily around teleport. Illusionist passive seems a must. Probably Blur and Wave of Force, too. It seems you would need heavy damage skills that you can fire off quickly, and then get safely out of there again.

Well it does have its usefullness with some of the runes attached, which can make it a lot better:
Safe Passage, Fracture and Calamity can make it work a bit like Barbarians Leap.

Teleport can be your savior when you are trapped. I had that a few times.