Arcane kiting, an alternative to Blizzard/Hydra

[Coriolis]

The coefficient for how often ap from crit works with celestial orb should be the same as the one for life on hit, which I believe is 16%.. bad but not terrible in larger packs. When you say that AP on crit didn't do much, how much crit and how much ap on crit did you have?

And yeah, disintegrate is great in NM, once you start hitting later packs in hell it gets alot worse. I haven't even seriously tried it in inferno.

[Kinmaul]

Can't remember my crit off the top of my head, but it's around 34%. I was only using a 10 ap on crit helm so I didn't expect the returns to be amazing, I just wanted to check the proc rate. For crit on AP to be useful you'd need some IAS gear which means you have to give up something else. I'm actually fine with how my chracters plays, I just wanted to see if the affix would allow some crazy orb spam if you got lucky but it's not worth it.

On another note disintegrate is hands down my favorite Wizard skill. I used it all the way through hell and a little bit into inferno, but it it just doesn't cut it when you have to be on the move so much.

[MRR]

After trying this build for a bit, I'm finding it difficult to adjust to the much lower snare that Temporal Flux offers in place of Blizzard. Sometimes you just can't seem to kite with it. Which is, of course, where images come in, but against AoE-capable enemies it's still pretty tough. I do like the damage potential the build offers though.

[Kinmaul]

Key elements of making this work are having at least 10% runspeed and always keeping your hydra ahead of you as you go into new territory. If you wait until you see the mobs before casting hydra you aren't playing properly and will have trouble. If hydra is already up it will snare the mobs the moment they aggro. Champion packs that are naturally quick + having the 'Fast' modifer are rough for this build. You are giving up the control of Blizzard for additional dps of spamming Arcane Orb so you have to keep that in mind. However outside of that combination I haven't had any trouble kiting and I've cleared up to Siegebreaker in a3 inferno. Not sure where you are currently at since you didn't mention it but I will say that a2 is a horrible place and the sewers are the hardest part of the game I've dealt with so far.

Another thing I've been playing around with is using Wormhole instead of Fracture to see how it handles Fast mobs. There's pros and cons for both runes, but you can put a huge amount of distance between you and the pack with Wormhole.

[zakaluka]

something to try with this:

Use scoundrel, go on AH and find a bow with high vit+dex and a cold dmg modifier.

Cold+temp flux snares add, unless my imagination is playing tricks on me. Multi-shot seems to replace the scoundrel's main attack, so he spams it and can keep uptime very high on his snare.

When you say that AP on crit didn't do much, how much crit and how much ap on crit did you have?

I usually see this comment in context of someone trying to go without a sig, hoping ap on crit can sustain their spender.

Trouble is, AP on crit isn't tuned to replace your signature. It really just reduces your need to sig, or improves your sig further in builds that use passives like dynamo to improve it. Added bonus that you can support a higher haste modifier efficiently. If you stacked up crit% and ap on crit to the roof, each AO would still only give you an average return of ~12.

[MRR]

Yes, I know how to use Hydra. :P I don't, however, have the movespeed bonus, so that could be a part of it. I still find though that the reduced slow gives you less time to sit there and spam, which is the advantage this build offers. You can spam a bit with images around, but otherwise you're SOL. Again, the movement speed may be the issue. I don't think it's a bad build, I'm just noticing the pros and cons.

[ysuol]

less time to sit there and spam

I never do that since hell because I get owned.
That's why I am not even using a sig spell. I run a lot and shoot rarely, just trying to keep arcane power depleted. The damage, compared to Blizzard is much better. Since I found arcane orb and temporal flux I never went back to Blizzard... (ok for some special fights it could be useful but other than that)

[MordainThade]

I've been using Temporal Flux as my control of choice since forever, basically as soon as it became available on my Wizard (who was my first character). Prior to Seeker and Celestial Orb, I was using Split and Obliteration.

I very much prefer Wormhole over Fracture for Teleport, due to too-fast mobs and its usefulness for either long run backs or total evasion of packs. However, if in a group (and I stick with the arcane-centric build), I go with Fracture, as it's not usually in my best interest to totally flee a full Wormhole Teleport distance. I also tend to switch between Force and Prismatic runes for Energy Armor, depending on the threat level of the mobs (i.e. Prismatic for A1, where I won't take hits over 15k, and Force for A2+, where I will). Lastly, rather than using Illusionist, I use Glass Cannon (more damage is good, if mobs aren't too painful) or Blur (static damage reduction from the most threatening mobs, i.e. melee); Illusionist is powerful to be sure, but due to my preference of Wormhole over Fracture, I get multiple jumps away from danger anyways.

I honestly think that the Arcane build is stronger for solo play than the Blizzard / V.Hydra build, as the damage comes in bursts (from the Arcane Hydra's orbs plus your own) rather than being DoT-based. As noted, only the fastest sorts of mobs can really overcome the 30% snare, as long as you have some move speed. It is also a friendlier build to those new 60s that don't have significant IAS, as they'll likely have a big ol' two-hander (it seems to me that the Blizzard / V.Hydra build wants a one-hander + source + lots of IAS).

All said, 10/10 for the build and guide.

[Cid]

something to try with this:

Use scoundrel, go on AH and find a bow with high vit+dex and a cold dmg modifier.

Cold+temp flux snares add, unless my imagination is playing tricks on me. Multi-shot seems to replace the scoundrel's main attack, so he spams it and can keep uptime very high on his snare.



I usually see this comment in context of someone trying to go without a sig, hoping ap on crit can sustain their spender.

Trouble is, AP on crit isn't tuned to replace your signature. It really just reduces your need to sig, or improves your sig further in builds that use passives like dynamo to improve it. Added bonus that you can support a higher haste modifier efficiently. If you stacked up crit% and ap on crit to the roof, each AO would still only give you an average return of ~12.

thats sounds great!
any confirmation on the scoundrel cold-bow damage stacking with temporal flux yet?

[peret]

Just wanted to add that AP on crit items makes this build even stronger. I tested it out with ~20AP on crit with 30% crit chance, and it has made clearing mobs way faster. you spam celestial, do seeker not only for dmg but now also to refill AP faster, then spam celestial again.

you can get ap on crit from wand, source or hat. 20 AP on crit is enough to replenish your AP which is easy to get from source + hat. i dont think going for ~30AP on crit is advisable because you'd need to sacrifice another mod in weapon (unless you're super rich). better to go for crit dmg.

lastly, go get some more +movement! I honestly thought 12% from boots was enough, but getting an extra 6 or 7% more makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE because you can dodge faster = more survivability. I'd go for hammer jammers w/c are cheaper. just make sure it has some vit/int mods w/ 2 sockets so you dont lose a lot of stats when you replace your pants.

eventho IAS artificially inflates your DPS, id still recommend getting at least one IAS gear ( blue ring w/ int is cheapest) because 1) concensus seems that hydra benefits from IAS 2) you cast and teleport faster. invest on crit chance / crit dmg rather than ias.

lastly, i use wormhole rather than fracture because it allows me to tele further away when mobs somehow inch up on me & to escape from crowded places if i ever get surrounded.

I'm still trying to upgrade my 891 dps weapon, but so far Im at heart of sin act 3 and this build is super effective. hardest part was soul rippers.

got 29k hp, ~4000 armor buffed, ~390 all res, 18% movement, 29% crit chance, 150% crit dmg, ~800 life regen. everything is so much smoother.