High-end Tank Wiz - Not Viable?

[zhangief]

Talking about life leech / LoH mages of course. I've been looking around a couple of forums and can't seem to find one person who's been able to pull this off. Has anyone run across any threads about successful act3/4 inferno tank mages?

[magicrectangle]

Melee wizards aren't about the life leech / LoH, they're about the critical mass diamond skin spam. I've used the build with some success in a3/4. It is quite good against bosses and melee friendly elite packs. Anti-melee elite packs can be more of a problem for a melee wizard than for monks/barbs though.

I made a video of my Inferno Diablo kill as a melee wizard, if you're interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HGzUyfRxm4

My melee gear is pretty meager, most notably lacking any AP-on-crit, which is why you see me using explosive blast instead of star pact.

[zhangief]

Hmm nice idea. I like.

Mind putting your build up?

[magicrectangle]

The build I used for Diablo was this:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...YOh!bgf!aZaZcc

There are a bunch of possible variations. If you have decent ap-on-crit star pact instead of explosive blast is nice. Wicked wind is also becoming popular instead of explosive blast, or even in addition to it and drop wormhole (although I personally can't stand not to have wormhole, some elites will just rape you without it). With enough ap-on-crit you can even drop spectral blades and spam AP spenders.

Critical mass is obviously the must-have passive, but the others can be swapped around. Arcane dynamo is pretty good, particularly with star pact. Blur is a good option to help cut down that damage - and I would normally run blur instead of galvanizing ward, but I wanted the passive regen on the diablo fight.

[zhangief]

sounds good dude...time to go gear shopping lol

thanks for the help

[Fear Before]

if you haven't read it this thread has turned into a tanking wizard thread

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...cal-Mass-build

also i've seen a couple good threads more specifically about the tanking wizard (including gear etc) on other forums

[psyadam]

Talking about life leech / LoH mages of course. I've been looking around a couple of forums and can't seem to find one person who's been able to pull this off. Has anyone run across any threads about successful act3/4 inferno tank mages?

I'm probably biased since I'm perfectly happy as a kiting orb wiz, but I don't think Wizards as a class were meant for tanking.

[Kaiadam]

While wizards aren't designed to tank ... they can almost match the defensive values of a monk/barb with prismatic armor + blur. In gear with relatively similar values, wizards take like 10% more damage than a melee.

On the other hand ... what's the point? You give up all your dps to tank effectively. Melee can do more damage while tanking better. Wizards are better off stacking dps and kiting stuff (until you have enough damage to clear packs before they reach you, of course).

Anyway, as to the original question ... sure, they're viable. No, they aren't anywhere close to efficient or optimal though.

[galzohar]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...YOh!bga!YZaZcc

With enough AP on crit (and crit) you can just use this. Spectral blade is really a waste of a skill slot once you have the gear. Wicked wind does OK damage and returns enough AP to spam both wicked wind and explosive blast together. Since explosive blast doesn't have a cast it adds a lot to your damage, unlike meteor which really replaces the energy twister spam but doesn't do as good of a job at returning AP and resetting cooldowns.

For groups maybe replace teleport with slow time for +20% damage, at least in act 3 and 4 where against some pack the attack speed slow makes it easier to get the next frost nova out before they finish their swing. For farming solo, at least in act 2, teleport is a godsent as it lets you teleport through everything that isn't an elite (use some wicked wind/nova combo to reset teleport cooldown and continue teleporting) and clear all elites in the act in record time.

[magicrectangle]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...YOh!bga!YZaZcc

With enough AP on crit (and crit) you can just use this. Spectral blade is really a waste of a skill slot once you have the gear.

Yeah, that's the build I'm using these days too. I'm at 27 AP-on-crit and find it more than sufficient to not worry about a signature spell.

Wicked wind does OK damage

LOL. No it doesn't - but it procs like crazy.

and returns enough AP to spam both wicked wind and explosive blast together. Since explosive blast doesn't have a cast it adds a lot to your damage, unlike meteor which really replaces the energy twister spam but doesn't do as good of a job at returning AP and resetting cooldowns.

Yeah, explosive blast is where your damage comes from - all of your damage. I really, really wish star pact were more viable compared to wicked wind. Besides the lower critical mass proc rate, the lead time on the meteors is what really kills it. Wicked wind starts procing as soon as you cast it. Not a second later when the enemy has moved out of the way.

For groups maybe replace teleport with slow time for +20% damage, at least in act 3 and 4 where against some pack the attack speed slow makes it easier to get the next frost nova out before they finish their swing. For farming solo, at least in act 2, teleport is a godsent as it lets you teleport through everything that isn't an elite (use some wicked wind/nova combo to reset teleport cooldown and continue teleporting) and clear all elites in the act in record time.

I would never, ever drop wormhole. How on earth would you kill a frozen waller jailer arcane without wormhole? Or take your pick of a dozen other combinations you need teleport for.