Critical Mass Melee Wizard

[NBarnes]

I kinda agree, but then :
- why did they put AP/Crit (which gimps us if you want to use real spells for damage)
- why did they give wands a ranged attack ?

I can get 27 AP/Crit with 46%CC.... yet my dream of "Orb everything into oblivion" is basically... just a Dream....

Wands have a ranged attack for the same reason that everybody has a basic melee attack; tradition. No class in the game is expected to use a basic autoattack, and wizards simply aren't an exception.

Why AP/Crit? Because Blizzard didn't have a well thought out plan for the wizard's playstyle and decided they didn't like the one players came up with, so they nerfed the snot out of the builds that could make use of AP/crit. So now AP/crit is about as useful as the barb's max rage affix.

And, yes, the ratios on Arcane Orb are terrible. It's a reasonable damage spell, but a horrible, horrible spell for on-hits of any sort. Blizzard probably needs to add some concept of 'diminishing proc rate returns' on AE spells, so that you can get reasonable LoH and other on-hits off Arcane Orb without having 50k HP wizards heal to full when they Arcane Orb five skeletons. Like, having a 0.6 ratio on the first target hit, and a 0.4 ratio on the second, and 0.3 on the 3rd, and 0.2 on every other target after that. You could actually get reasonable AP/crit and LoH returns off Arcane Orb that way.

And then wizards might have the same sort of infinite (or semi-infinite) sustain that barbs and monks have.

[moreno]

Tested new version on the PTR today. Storm Armor buff is working great - its hiting much more often now, gonna stick to it.

[korrekt]

I did a bit of farming with this CM/Nova build: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...XfY!gWb!aaZaZY
When playing with a pet WD in party mp5 was easy as hell and even solo that build worked quite well for me on mp5, butcher was close to enrage but still, most solid build for cm right now I feel (Maybe switch spectral blades or magic weapon to healing rune for better survivability...)

thats my gear: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/k...99/hero/161359

[moreno]

I find this topic dead after 1.0.5 patch. Did you all switch to other builds? I'm still having much fun with WW/CM wizzard - switched few skills to adapt to 1.0.5 changes and this build is still very viable.

As CC and AS got for us much more important after the 1.0.5, I'm using Prismatic Armor with Pinpoint Barrier for the extra +5% CC and Slow Time - Time Stretch for +10% AS and increased survability against distance mobs. This is working really good. You can see how it is doing in the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i908Th4UL9E&hd=1

[Eric Xanthu]

I still find it my most reliable build with my current gear. I don't use pinpoint, but I do use Deep Freeze (which I have always sworn by). Mistral Breeze instead of WW.

I don't have any problems with trash on mp3, but when the boss is last man standing it gets too irritating. I play on mp1 mostly for efficiency.

[magicrectangle]

I don't see why you'd use critical mass on MP1. Archon is just far far more efficient on low MP.

IMHO functionally 1.05 stratifies the builds by MP level. Low MP = archon, high MP = critical mass (with good gear, obviously).

I've been doing MP5 keywardens with a star pact build that is treating me alright. I'm not 100% happy with it yet, but that's mostly because my CM gear is garbage by current standards (basically hasn't improved since 1.03 and what you see in the OP).

[Eric Xanthu]

I don't see why you'd use critical mass on MP1.

I dislike Archon, partially because I have low health and partially because I despise relying on pack placement. I suppose I could practice it more, but I personally am definitely as fast with CM as I am with archon.

The only reason I don't run higher (say, 4+) is kill-time on "last remaining boss." I just find it aggravating and, against tougher spawns, dangerous. Lately I've been doing mp2 and feeling ok; I don't foresee moving much higher until my gear is better.

When I'm not grinding for gold/drops/xp, I mess around with meteor builds. I just can't get one that makes me happy yet.

[DickScotchfist]

Windup. It's called windup build. We don't do a single melee attack.

-Lostman

[Karth]

Windup. It's called windup build. We don't do a single melee attack.

-Lostman

Yet I find 'critical mass melee' to be a lot more descriptive of the build and likely to be helpful to people who want to try something other than blizz+hydra kiting or orbing. It uses critical mass, and it stands in the middle of a melee to kill stuff.

[magicrectangle]

Melee just means close range, and it is exactly that. Plus as karth says, it conveys more of how the character actually plays than "windup" does. I'm happy that you've come up with your own name that you like for it, but I'm also plenty satisfied with the name I picked way back when I started this thread.

I'm considering whether it is useful to update the OP in this thread, or whether it would be better to just move the conversation to a new thread and get this one un-stickied. The build has changed a fair bit, mostly in the gear aspect. The play isn't too different, so I suppose maybe a whole new thread isn't necessary.