Your Wiz set up?

[Snerra]

That's exactly right, I kite with it in short bursts. However, because of my high IAS and especially with Temporal Flux, you can sometimes burn almost your complete mana pool before you have to move back, making those 'short bursts' a lot longer than you might think.
That said, I do consider switching in Arcane orb or Blizzard every once in a while, but so far, I like feeling like I'm actually directly burning down my enemies and especially in tight corners, like on the act 3 bridges, the amount of enemies you can hit is amazing.

I love Disintegrate. I'm using it in Act2 Inferno currently, and I'm doing fine. I actually dropped it for a while, for arcane orb+hydra. But I don't like Arcane Orb. I'm also stacking IAS with 1hander+off-hand. It drains AP really fast, but you wont be able to channel for long anyway.

Also, holy gear batman, that is some good stats you got, Frostlion. Not sure how you managed so much crit and IAS! Wow.

This is the build I'm using:

Azulin, level 60 female wizard
Slot 1: Diamond Skin/Crystal Shell
Slot 2: Teleport with Fracture
Slot 3: Hydra/Vendom Hydra
Slot 4: Energy Armor/Force Armor
Left Click: Electrocute/Lightning Blast or Shock Pulse/Piercing Orb (can't decide. Lightning Blast has a faster cast rate, Orb does more dmg per hit.)
Right Click: Disintegrate/Chaos Nexus

Passives
Illusionist
Temporal Flux
Arcane Dynamo [AD]

Stats
964 int
773 vit

Life 28-29k
Resistances ~300
Life regen 738
Armor 4k (with energy armor)
DPS 16k (a bit low, sadly)
IAS 28%
Crit 12,50%
Arcane Power 80


Arcane Dynamo is pretty amazing with Disintegrate/Chaos Nexus. You get the 75% dmg for the full channeling duration. So once you reach 5 stacks of Arcane Dynamo (doesn't take too long with good IAS), you melt face with up to 270% weapon damage (230 if monsters are out of chaos nexus range)!! That's crazy.

Such power doesn't come without tradeoffs, as all wizards know. Hydra also consumes the AD charges, but doesn't get any benefit from it, afaik. Same with Frost Nova. Probably a bug. It's not the biggest deal, but annoying. Also, you can't always count on being able to channel for very long, so sometimes you don't get that much effect from AD.

Then there's my AP. A meager 80. Takes about 3 seconds to drain (used phone stopwatch). Much to my disappointment, getting a helm with -3 AP reduction on Disintegrate grants you about 0.5-7 seconds extra channel time. Woop woop. Oh well, decent I guess.

Lastly, as you can tell, your overall dps suffers from not having Magic Weapon/Familiar. 16k is a bit low for Act2 Inferno; much too low for A3/4. Gear can make up for some of that, I suppose.

[PhoeniX Skye]

Arcane Dynamo is pretty amazing with Disintegrate/Chaos Nexus. You get the 75% dmg for the full channeling duration. So once you reach 5 stacks of Arcane Dynamo (doesn't take too long with good IAS), you melt face with up to 270% weapon damage (230 if monsters are out of chaos nexus range)!! That's crazy.

Such power doesn't come without tradeoffs, as all wizards know. Hydra also consumes the AD charges, but doesn't get any benefit from it, afaik. Same with Frost Nova. Probably a bug. It's not the biggest deal, but annoying. Also, you can't always count on being able to channel for very long, so sometimes you don't get that much effect from AD.

Hm good to know Hydra doesn't get any benefit from AD... I've been using my charges for Hydra, but I guess I'll use the charges for Blizzard instead.

[mickptd]

Frostlion

why wormhole but not fracture?

[Frostlion]

Frostlion

why wormhole but not fracture?

There's something to be said for both. As I mentioned, I used fracture for a large part of the game as well. There's a few reasons I prefer Wormhole though:

1) It makes it much easier to truly kite fast, vortex or teleporter mobs. One teleport is usually not enough to really get away from them, but chaining a few does save you.
2) fracture doesn't synergize that well with mirror image (which I also have right now). It is nice to have one follow the other, but usually not needed.
3) Wormhole makes it possible to weave through waller/molten/plagued/desecrator areas that you can't get past in one jump. You hardly take any damage teleporting through them if you're fast enough: great in tight corners.
4) Wormhole is great for getting to healing wells, for example in act 3 Underbridge and for the Butcher or Diablo fights.
5) If you die and have to run back, or if you're just in town, wormhole let's you move a lot faster. It seems trivial, but it adds up. You end up saving a lot of time on farming runs and sometimes getting back to boss packs before they regen.
6) Wormhole means you don't have to time things perfectly if you're trying to avoid something like a charge from a savage beast in act one, a charge from the siegebreaker in act 3 or a teleport attack from Rakanoth in act 4. You start teleporting a little early and if that's too soon, just keeping going until you've avoided the attack.

All that said though, I think a good case can still be made for fracture (or even safe passage for certain enemies). The main thing you notice with Wormhole is that it is a much bigger AP drain (you pay for every jump separately). Another problem is that if you jump the wrong way and get stuck behind a pillar or something, you don't have enough time to adjust. In the end it's a matter of taste and playstyle.

[Snerra]

Frostlion, sent you a PM.

[Cloudparter]

Here's what I'm using currently in late Act II Hell. I had to change my whole build as my Meteor/Starpact - Electrocute/Chain Lightning build wasn't cutting it for crowd control. So I went Frost and I am loving it.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...YRS!YXW!bbZcYZ

I'm doing pretty great with this build. Not dying nearly as much and putting out great crowd control with Blizzard/Frost Hydra and using Ray of Frost as my primary. Having no signature skill as well doesn't seem to be to much of a hassle as my Arcane regens fast enough (gear and Astral Presence) and I have low casting costs with the runes on Blizzard and Ray of Frost and using Prism on Diamond skill makes me go on with continued sustained combat (approx. 30-45 secs.) before I have to back off for a bit as my Arcane is to low. Usually most mobs are dead by then anyways.

[darkstarhub]

I havent really found anything so far with my first character, but I am all self-found except for weapon. I have been considering going on the auction house and getting a few things, I really need more Intelligence. I have around 32,000 vitality(which is decent) and I am at level 58 in mid Act 2 in Hell. I would also like more health regen, which is something I always liked to have in D2, and I believe its even more important now. The skills I am using now are:

RMB- Arcane Orb (Tap the Source)
LMB- Shock Pulse (Piercing Orb)
Slot1- Frost Nova (Deep Freeze)
Slot2- Wave of Force (Force Affinity)
Slot3- Energy Armor (Force Armor)
Slot4- Ray of Frost (Cold Blooded)

P1- Glass Cannon
P2- Astral Presence
P3- Cold Blooded

I have used the Frost Nova/Wave of Force since they were both available. I like Deep Freeze for the bonus to critical hit and Force Affinity makes the cool down on both the same time(12 sec). This combo works okay if I get stuck, but the freeze time of Nova is not long enough and WoF doesnt seem to do that much damage. I really like Arcane Orb, as it reminds me of Frozen Orb, my all-time favorite D2 skill. Tap the Source for the same reason as everybody else. Shock Pulse with Piercing Orb works alright if I can stand back and just cast them repeatedly into a crowd since the orbs hit everything. I guess Energy Armor with Force Armor works, but I get in trouble pretty quick with or without it. I do like Energy Tap for the extra Arcane Power, but Astral Presence makes up a little. Ray of Frost with Cold Blooded allows me to keep it going for a long time if the Templar does his tanking job. Glass Cannon for a little more damage.

I am getting owned pretty much all the time. I really have to be on my toes to not get absolutely trashed. I really hate invulnerable minions, and I cant stress that enough. I am only doing around 5,600 DPS, and that is so far below what I have been reading on other people's builds. After reading this thread, I am going to give Magic Weapon a try and figure out a different build. I love the Frost Nova/WoF combo, but I need damage and that is 2 slots that are not doing that. The Zombies on the road to Tristram in Inferno would just laugh. With Belial coming up, I am going to do something, I have a little trouble with him.

[acken]

LMB: Seeker or Lightning Blast
RMB: Blizzard Snowbound
1: Duplicates
2: Venom hydra
3: Force Armor
4: Fracture

Illusionist, Glass canon, Blur/GalvWard/Dynamo

Gameplay is the usual Venom Hydra + Blizzard combo. I value having 2 defensive CD rather than trying to get Force Weapon. I have 37K Health, 350AllRes, 1200Hp/s and 38K dps (with glass, without force weapon).

I've finished everything, can't easily farm every area yet (my gear is the same for some time since I'm currently gearing my barbarrian) but I regularly farm Siegebreaker (5stacks) or Whimsyshire.

[PhoeniX Skye]

LMB: Seeker or Lightning Blast
RMB: Blizzard Snowbound
1: Duplicates
2: Venom hydra
3: Force Armor
4: Fracture

Illusionist, Glass canon, Blur/GalvWard/Dynamo

Gameplay is the usual Venom Hydra + Blizzard combo. I value having 2 defensive CD rather than trying to get Force Weapon. I have 37K Health, 350AllRes, 1200Hp/s and 38K dps (with glass, without force weapon).

I've finished everything, can't easily farm every area yet (my gear is the same for some time since I'm currently gearing my barbarrian) but I regularly farm Siegebreaker (5stacks) or Whimsyshire.

Just wondering, what DPS of weapon are you using? And attack speed, crit% and dam, Intelligence, etc.? I'm having a hard time upping my sad 15k damage with my slow 991 dps 2H... guess I gotta stop being so cheap.

[darkstarhub]

I wish I had the gold to buy a really nice weapon, but I don't have the mass of gold some people have. I guess I don't know where to farm it. I wasted some money on crafting and on the jeweler early on, but I am working on it. If they do anything with the jeweler it needs to be making the gem upgrade cost cheaper. I have alot of gems, making it 2 instead of 3 to upgrade wouldn't make a difference to me.

I got rid of frost nova last night and switched to the more knockback rune on WoF. With the open slot I put in magic weapon. Wow, what a difference! It brought my damage up alot, and I didnt die once in either area by the terminus. I might switch out WoF for teleport at some point in time and see how that suits me. I guess it's either teleport away or use WoF to knock them back as an escape tactic. I am definitely loving having more than a couple usable skills.