Frustrated in Act III Hell.

[CubsAce38]

Ok so let's start off with the basics:

Level: 57
L-Click: Distinigrate (convergence)
R-Click: Teleport (the one that creates clones)
1: Diamond Armor (crystal skin)
2: Energy Armor (Force armor, what else?)
3: Hydra (Venom, what else?)
4: Magic Weapon (Force? The one that give 15% and the knockback chance)

Passives: Glass Cannon, Temporal Flux, AP

Approx 23k health
Approx 2.5k def with energy armor
Approx 6.5k DPS

I am taking out mobs with ease and in seconds. If I hit ANY boss pack it's game over. I tele out and attempt to kite and still no luck. All of the mobs are always super fast with fire chains and it's game over. Any suggestions on something I might be overlooking? I also use a templar as my hireling.

[mickptd]

1) 12% fast run boots
2) new weapon
3) resist all items

[CubsAce38]

1) 12% fast run boots
2) new weapon
3) resist all items

1) I'm going to find a pair soon
2) 1h or 2h? What kind of DPS should I be looking to be at in A3?
3) I thought those are only available at level 60?

[DayDream]

Ideally, you'd want a 1h because it will have a faster cast but if you can only afford a crazy strong 2h.. then you know.. But that's just me.

[ZwanZigZwolf]

Faster cast? You mean Faster Attack speed right? I have yet to see any items on it with FCR just IAS.

[mickptd]

1) boots without run speed isn't boots from my opinion
2) I use one hand as nice shield (~1k armor) gives you 100 all res (10 armor =1 all res) and also blocks. Block rate is also important. 2 hand will give you more damage but I prefer shield anyway.
3) I did 53-60 in one day farming 2 and 3 quests in 1 act hell (nice quest exp/money). At lvl 60 I did all the rest like in 3 hours.

[Retarderet]

if you want help, i can do that easy... throw your battletag at me in some way, and i will come join

[melianor]

1) boots without run speed isn't boots from my opinion
2) I use one hand as nice shield (~1k armor) gives you 100 all res (10 armor =1 all res) and also blocks. Block rate is also important. 2 hand will give you more damage but I prefer shield anyway.
3) I did 53-60 in one day farming 2 and 3 quests in 1 act hell (nice quest exp/money). At lvl 60 I did all the rest like in 3 hours.

We have a nice post here somewhere linking to a REALLY good thread on the official forums, about how armor effects damage reduction and resistances. There is also a relation towards intelligence. That thread is like a MUST read for anyone who wants to understand how gear works. Like mickptd wrote, 10 armor = 1 all res, so you should really think about your setup and what armor can do for you!

I am doing the same from 55-60 now. Act 1 Hell Quests killing Wretched Mothers and will look for some other. It's easy, it gives quote a lot of items and gold and the experience gain is very decent. By the time you reach 60 you will have useful items and bags full of gold for shopping, if needed.

[CubsAce38]

Thank you so much everyone! I'll give it a try when I get back on tomorrow. Did not know that about armor and resistance. Things are getting clearer everyday! I'm using a 1h right now and ill try it with a shield to get the extra D to get more survivability. Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate it!

[MRR]

My advice:

Swap out Venom Hydra for Blizzard.

Swap out Teleport for Mirror Images.

Do not gear for resists, just focus on avoiding attacks.

Go with a slow 2-hander.

My rationale:
Venom Hydra is, from my experience, mainly a boss-fight skill or a group-play skill. In boss fights, the bosses tend to move slowly (or not much at all) so they will stand in the pools, and in group-play you'll hopefully have a barbarian or monk keeping them in place. Solo, however, they won't stand still. They will come after you, and you should not stand still. (Don't rely on the Templar to actually tank anything later on - he might stun occasionally and soak up a few hits, but that's it.)

Blizzard allows you to kite much more effectively. Throw a Blizzard on yourself and run away - monsters chasing you will be slowed, allowing you to turn around and disintegrate them. Personally I'd prefer Arcane Orb, to toss and run (I'm not a fan of channeling abilities at all, since they're poor choices for kiting), but the choice is really up to you.

It's also worth noting that Blizzard is a stronger slow than Temporal Flux (60% vs 30% I believe, but correct me if I'm wrong) and doesn't require you to sit there and channel in order to slow things. You could drop Temporal Flux for another passive, like Blur to give you more survivability or Evocation to bring up your defensive CDs a bit faster.

Personally I use a combination of Arcane Orb (tap the source) and Blizzard (snowbound), reducing the cost of each to 20 AP. This way they're both relatively spammable while you're kiting (though you will still run out of AP quickly enough when you stand still and attack). Since you're running without a signature spell, your damage output is limited not by attack speed, but by Arcane Power. As such, a slower weapon with equivalent overall DPS will serve you better.

For example: At 100 AP, you can cast Arcane Orb (tap the source) 5 times before you run out of juice (probably actually 6 due to regen, but let's assume 5). Now, let's compare two 800 DPS weapons: a 1h sword-and-off-hand combo dealing 571 damage per attack with 1.4 attacks per second, and a 2h staff dealing 800 damage per attack with 1.0 attacks per second.

1h sword: 571 at 175% per attack = 1000 damage per Orb x5 = 5000 damage before you run out of AP.
2h staff: 800 at 175% per attack = 1400 damage per Orb x5 = 7000 damage before you run out of AP.

There are a few other things to consider: one is that faster attack speed = faster cast time, and sometimes a faster cast animation can improve your kiting somewhat, or allow you to get in more damage in short periods of burst. The other main thing is that a wand will still allow you to make ranged attacks when you run out of AP.

For a Wizard build using prodigy and a signature spell, attack speed becomes very valuable - otherwise you tend to get more bang for your buck with a 2h weapon.

Now, since you're not using any signature spells, you're constantly going to be draining AP, which is why I'm suggesting you get rid of teleport. Teleport costs AP, which makes it less useful in a pinch than Mirror Images, and I find that MI (duplicates) does just as good a job (if not better) than Teleport. MI breaks any CC on you AND gives you some time to move away, while being on a shorter cooldown than teleport and not costing you any precious AP. This comes down to personal preference in the end, but when I see a build with no signature spells I realize that they're going to be AP-starved and I think MI is the better option for that scenario.

Finally, resistances aren't all that useful to wizards who use Force Armor. FA does the exact same thing resistances do, only better. You've already got tons of life (23k is more health than my Wizard has in A3 inferno), so no attack can deal more than 35% of your life. Gearing for resistance won't reduce that damage any further, and you're already getting a decent amount of resistance from stacking Intelligence. I find it more effective to just boost my vitality/life total, which increases the threshold for FA's resistance.