Hell build

[Lomsomquis]

So I'm new to Diablo, not to RPGs...I pretty much have always been a barb so I'm new to this wizard thing. Anyways, right now I'm in A1 of Hell with a lvl 51 wiz and I'm using the following build:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...RST!fYX!YbYbZZ

(Note: I prefer not to solo, so this is my party build)

Basically, I'll keep the hydra up at all times with MW and SA always on. With the passives, here is something interesting to note: no matter how long I hold down Ray of Frost, my AP never decreases- and I mean it. Never. I can keep my finger held down on the RMB for as long as I want but as long as SA is on, my AP never ticks...which makes me wonder if I'm wasting a slot or if there are just better ways of doing this. I'm not really sure how much damage I'm doing but it works pretty well. Anyways, I was just looking for some general comments on my wiz- I've fished around these forums trying to find a good build for Hell but I'm actually more interested in specific stats(I'll take build suggestions too). Here is what my wiz looks like:

Str: 300
Dex: 330
Int: 820
Vit: 846
Arm: 1852
DPS: 1997.01
Life: 21.3k

I'm really not sure whether anything needs to/should be changed but I would love some insight into my build. I feel like I have seen people with significantly more INT and DPS at this stage and I'm just wondering how they got it up so high(3k+ DPS???) Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[magicrectangle]

Cold blood is often used instead of a signature. Pairing it with a signature (runed for ap regen, no less) seems pretty pointless. Doubly so since you're running power of the storm. Either drop ray of frost for something more AP intensive like disintegrate, or drop your signature.

Consider crystal shell instead of enduring skin. If you're using it as you need it, diamond skin will rarely last its full duration anyway. Or pick up prism if you decide to use disintegrate.

Your stats are fine for act 1 hell. If you want to beef up though, the easiest way is to buy a -level requirement level 60 weapon off the AH. Since you're level 51, search for level 60 items with -9 level requirement. Set the max buyout to however much gold you have, and buy whichever looks nice from the top of the list.

[Lomsomquis]

EDIT: Yea, I didn't see that Cold blood decreases casting cost to 0 AP. I'm an idiot. Anyways, I guess I'll swap out RoF for Disintegrate w/Volatility and use crystal shell instead of enduring skin. Thanks.