Wizard = Slot Start, Strong Later? (Solo Play)

[domus]

The slow start of the wizard was just killing me at first. It's also my second char (I have a 38 DH also) and I've farmed up a bunch of great items to gear up the wiz as I go.

The low damage was just awful.

Then I hit level 11. And got spectral blades which I just LOVE!

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WeYdX!a

Now level 15 and zipping through content.

[Leopard]

Adding more int and vit made the start of act ii more bearable, and I was moving along at a decent pace again. I think the key is that it's a very different playstyle and yes, trying out every skill. There are quite a few skills I thought would be pointless that are actually quite good (exploding bollllts.) Cheap tornado is quite nice because it's spammable, but the spell itself still irks me with it's unpredictability.

Then I got Disintegrate. And Diamond Skin: Prism. And killed 45 mobs in one hit.

Prism was the one thing I had really overlooked that is a complete game changer for the wizard. I didn't feel like I was going to be a fan of Disintegrate because of its high cost, but Prism makes it completely spammable at the start of each fight, as I imagine it does for many other spells. Everything's been smooth sailing since.

[magicrectangle]

My wizard was pretty much rocking the whole way. At level 8 you get diamond skin, and at level 9 you get explosive bolts rune for shock pulse. From then on I pretty much played the point-blank-AoE wizard, spaming explosive bolts in stuff's face. I added explosive blast at 19 and arcane orbit at 20 for a sick in-your-face-explosions build. That was pretty good for a while, then when I hit 26 I runed convergence in disintegrate and have used it since. I'm now 57 in A2 hell and still using disintegrate (volatility), it is very good.

Disintegrate's AP consumption seems to be tied to weapon speed, so the key to using it as your primary attack is to get a big slow 2h weapon. You look freaking silly but with a 0.90 speed 2h mace you can spam disintegrate for a long time. IMHO having the AP consumption tied to weapon speed is pretty retarded, but there it is.

Then I got Disintegrate. And Diamond Skin: Prism. And killed 45 mobs in one hit.

So far my record is 94 with archon. I really want to get to 100 =/

[Leopard]

My wizard was pretty much rocking the whole way. At level 8 you get diamond skin, and at level 9 you get explosive bolts rune for shock pulse. From then on I pretty much played the point-blank-AoE wizard, spaming explosive bolts in stuff's face. I added explosive blast at 19 and arcane orbit at 20 for a sick in-your-face-explosions build. That was pretty good for a while, then when I hit 26 I runed convergence in disintegrate and have used it since. I'm now 57 in A2 hell and still using disintegrate (volatility), it is very good.

Disintegrate's AP consumption seems to be tied to weapon speed, so the key to using it as your primary attack is to get a big slow 2h weapon. You look freaking silly but with a 0.90 speed 2h mace you can spam disintegrate for a long time. IMHO having the AP consumption tied to weapon speed is pretty retarded, but there it is.

So far my record is 94 with archon. I really want to get to 100 =/

How do you deal with mobs in your face once Diamond Skin runs out? Or are they all dead? That sort of build sounds really interesting to try (and much more my style.)

[magicrectangle]

How do you deal with mobs in your face once Diamond Skin runs out? Or are they all dead? That sort of build sounds really interesting to try (and much more my style.)

The in your face explosion one, or the disintegrate one? I'll assume the former since disintegrate is pretty cookie cutter.

Keeping in mind that I only played that build on normal difficulty, stuff was mostly just dead by the time diamond skin wore off. If there was a significant amount of stuff still up that looked threatening, I'd beat a strategic retreat and let my paladin tank a little, and shoot magic missiles at stuff, then run in again.

The killing power of explosive bolts on normal difficulty is pretty impressive. The most important thing to know about it is that it can chain. They don't have to die from an actual charged bolt to explode, if they die from the explosion of another monster, they'll explode too. This can result in a chain of 30+ guys exploding in something like the jar of souls event. A similar effect is accomplished with disintegrate + volatility rune at higher level.

[kamishona]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to share my current build, quite happy with it. It's a nice allrounder in my short experience.
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...QfPl!bYX!aaZaa

Blizzard -> Arcane Orb -> Electrocute. Repeat if anything is still standing.

Blizzard is an excellent crowd controller, combine it with teleport and ice armor and you are almost uncatchable by regular mobs, for bosses use Mirror image.

[Leopard]

The in your face explosion one, or the disintegrate one? I'll assume the former since disintegrate is pretty cookie cutter.

Keeping in mind that I only played that build on normal difficulty, stuff was mostly just dead by the time diamond skin wore off. If there was a significant amount of stuff still up that looked threatening, I'd beat a strategic retreat and let my paladin tank a little, and shoot magic missiles at stuff, then run in again.

The killing power of explosive bolts on normal difficulty is pretty impressive. The most important thing to know about it is that it can chain. They don't have to die from an actual charged bolt to explode, if they die from the explosion of another monster, they'll explode too. This can result in a chain of 30+ guys exploding in something like the jar of souls event. A similar effect is accomplished with disintegrate + volatility rune at higher level.

Ah, thanks. So that's how it works. I didn't realise that the explosion could trigger more explosions (but it makes sense to why it's so jawdropping when you actually use it.) And yeah, Disintegrate is pretty much a no brainer, I've been having fun with your in your face explosion style since - up to act 3 now!