Electrocute - chain lightning

[Gene]

Hi all.
I'm only in nightmare act II with my Wizard (Hardcore), but I've been using chain lightning a lot; and haven't seen much written about it on these forums.

It seems to me that it hits at a constant rate if you hold it on one target; however if you alternate it between two targets, it deals damage to both a lot quicker than it otherwise would. At the minute I just shift-click a huge group of enemies and swirl my mouse over them.

At the level I'm at it's great for clearing crowds, but is really lacking in single target dps. As it stands I'm using blizzard to kite monsters as I slowly wear them down. But I think this will be too hard to do when I get to hell or even inferno.

Has anyone here used it with success? And does anyone else think it attacks faster when moving the mouse over heaps of targets?

[Accaris]

Chain Lightning used to be extremely good in a Critical Mass build that allowed for infinite Diamond Skin, but that got nerfed. I doubt anyone uses it in Inferno now... it's not conducive to kiting and the DPS just isn't that great.

For kiting with Blizzard, Magic Missile + Seeker or Shock Pulse + Piercing Orb are the preferred options.

[melianor]

Chain Lightning used to be extremely good in a Critical Mass build that allowed for infinite Diamond Skin, but that got nerfed. I doubt anyone uses it in Inferno now... it's not conducive to kiting and the DPS just isn't that great.

For kiting with Blizzard, Magic Missile + Seeker or Shock Pulse + Piercing Orb are the preferred options.

Can't really say for Chain Lightning, but i am using Hydra, Blizzard and RoF with reduced cost in Act1/Act2 Inferno now. That combined with +12% movement speed does just fine. I can run ahead far enough to turn around and cast RoF for a good while dealing strong additional damage and also keeping monsters on slow. This is a lot more damage than i can do with MM Seeker, which i used before.

So this might just work for Act1/Act2 with Chain Lightning as well.

[azolin]

I used chain lightning / arcane dynamo / disintegrate build in act 1 inferno and it proved very effective - burn elites with AD enhanced disintegrate, burn rest with chain lightning, blizzard control, defensive skills / hydra as needed. It proved extremely poor against butcher however (without hydra). However, in act 3 i gave up on chain lightning - only thing i found to work reliably are kite-heavy builds and piercing orb has major range advantage over lightning; however, with enough tanking gear to withstand some beating, i guess various builds would work in act 3 as well - my guess is you need something like 8k armor, 1000+ resistances before prismatic armor

[Cebo]

There's no problem with Chain Lightning.

The problem is that Shock Pulse - Piercing Orb, once you unlock it, is better in nearly every respect. Hits more enemies in packs, does more single-target damage.

[PhoeniX Skye]

For HC, I would say that the disadvantage of Electrocute is that you stand in place while you cast it, and it doesn't really shine unless you're holding it down for a few seconds. I agree with the above, Piercing Orb is much more kite friendly, does more damage initially, and it doesn't drop off with more monsters hit.