Need Inferno Act 2 Help

[johnprocter]

I dont know whats going on? I used to be able to tank in Hell with my wizard but now im stuck in act 2 Inferno and I can't seem to kill anything anymore. I have resists around 400 and my health is around 30k but i still die in 1 hit from a fallen quill rat. Diablo 3 wasn't much fun before, but now its even worse. It seems the only thing i can kill somewhat consistently is a goblin only because he doesnt fight back and i dont need 900 resist all. I'm using mirror image with magic weapon and the twisters but they dont always hit. I'm tired of running from every enemy i just want to kill enemies again like in act 1 normal. Please advise because even the goblin doesn't die all the time. I remember owning when i was lvl 1-10 but at lvl 60 the enemies own me. Someone told me in a game the other night after I kept dieing over and over again asking me "How did i ever get this far, on my own?" I told him I was extremely lucky because I probably don't have much gaming skills and I don't like to cheat (Auction House). He said I put my stat points in the wrong places, I only wish it was that easy. Needing lots of help here, any suggestions would be helpful. I'd like to spend more time playing the game rather then waiting to respawn.

[Decollete]

I am stuck there myself but if you'll read the other topics in this forum:
- Force Armor to prevent getting 1 shot
- Farm Act 1 Inferno for better gear

If you get to have a change of heart
- Use AH to get better equipment

[melianor]

You can't put your statpoints in any wrong place? Who told you that?

Since you have come this far on your own, you are on a good track and your gaming skills cannot be doubted. It's just that the jump from Act 1 Inferno to Act2 Inferno is massive and without a good gear check and the right skills you will certainly get one-shotted, die, facepalm and wonder what happened to your playing skills

So in order to help you we will need some more information about your build!

Resistances, life, armor, damage, skills and passives you are using. Screenshot of your character details will be a good start.

[Forbid]

don't fret, a lot of people are also stuck exactly where you are.

force armor isn't considered a defensive option, it's basically a must in inferno. common/popular defensive options past act2 inferno would be teleport (fracture or wormhole) and mirror images (duplicates). some people run one, others need two defensives active to survive. depends on the individual and what you're fighting. running either or both of these with illusionist passive will save you a ton of deaths and repair costs.

from the sounds of things it seems like you're getting pretty bored of this game and that you play alone. although in many cases it actually makes the game harder, it also makes it more interesting if you play with friends (or just online public games, though personally those drive me crazy)

[johnprocter]

Force armor? I've never used that skill before. I think I'm going to give it a try. Here is a link to my current build set up: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WeVSPj!YZa!bZZccb I like using spectral shard, but I'm finding it very difficult to stay alive. I'll try to make a screen shot of my gear, but you must bare with me. I'm not very good with photoshop. Thanks for your help everyone.

[PhoeniX Skye]

You seem to depend on very random skills to do damage (Death Blossom/Twister), and you have no way of slowing monsters down... also you should replace Ancient Guardian with Force Armor, the latter is a much better defensive skill that most wizards need for inferno (even when you've geared up high enough, most wiz's use the Prismatic rune).

[johnprocter]

I was thinking about using force armor, especially in light of the huge repair cost increase. I'm a little upset that Diablo 3 has come to this....being forced into using a skill just to survive. Maybe that is why they call it force armor because Blizzard is forcing you to use it just to play the game. I remember reading something about how there was over a million different skill and rune combinations in the game. I'm beginning to believe that was an exaggeration. Honestly, I don't think it matters what my skills are anymore. I've died so many times, with these new repair costs, I can't even repair my items anymore! I've had to make a new sorceress just to find gold in normal to repair my items. It's slow going now. I think I might just start one of those necromancers that pukes on people.

[Zekareisoujin]

If you keep dying, that means there is something inherently wrong with the strategy you're using / the difficulty of the content you're doing. And no, I believe you're not forced to use a single skill to survive. Force armor is good, definitely, which is why it is so widely used. However, at higher gear level like mine, I'm using Prismatic Armor instead because it is just simply better. Monsters up to act3 Inferno cannot even hit me for 35% cap so Prismatic Armor is currently perform much better than Force Armor.

Regarding the repair cost, yes, I do think that it is a little too high, but that just mean that I have to find a way around it. What I am doing: refraining from zerging champions/elites, skipping champion/elite packs that can potentially kill you over and over again. Basically I am playing very carefully. With this, I'm actually still making a small profits while farming act 3. Sometimes I would have to skip an entire area because some powerful champions would be blocking the way and it is impossible to drag them somewhere safe for me to proceed, but that doesn't happen often to me, and at worst you would lose only 2-3 champion/elite packs on that level.

[johnprocter]

If you keep dying, that means there is something inherently wrong with the strategy you're using / the difficulty of the content you're doing. And no, I believe you're not forced to use a single skill to survive. Force armor is good, definitely, which is why it is so widely used. However, at higher gear level like mine, I'm using Prismatic Armor instead because it is just simply better. Monsters up to act3 Inferno cannot even hit me for 35% cap so Prismatic Armor is currently perform much better than Force Armor.

Regarding the repair cost, yes, I do think that it is a little too high, but that just mean that I have to find a way around it. What I am doing: refraining from zerging champions/elites, skipping champion/elite packs that can potentially kill you over and over again. Basically I am playing very carefully. With this, I'm actually still making a small profits while farming act 3. Sometimes I would have to skip an entire area because some powerful champions would be blocking the way and it is impossible to drag them somewhere safe for me to proceed, but that doesn't happen often to me, and at worst you would lose only 2-3 champion/elite packs on that level.

I must disagree that my strategy was inherently unsucessful. I was lucky enough to find 3 partners that basically killed belial for me. during the batle i must have died approximately 20 times. they kept me in it though and revived me apparently they made a wager on how many times i would die. anyhow, after dying many times over I dealt the glancing blow, vansquishing belial in underwhelming inepitude. I went on to collect my hard fought, and well earned, reward: 3 level 55 magic items. Unfortunately, I could only repair my bracers after the fight. I must go back to playing my new necromancer that pukes on people to earn some gold in act 2 normal.

Now I'm in Act 3 inferno and am having an even worse problem though. There are no enemies i can kill. Those fallen quill rat dogs seem like a walk in the park now. Captain Rumsford has abandoned me and leaves me to perish on those cold slippery slopes. I can't even raise one of his catapults...Since I've gotten through Act 2 I think it might be time to make a new post about my new, current problems.

[ggfunk]

Maybe you could farm Help act IV for gold.