Deadset's Guide to 2.4.1 - Detailed Beginner/Group/Solo Guides, Personal Impressions and Expectations

You may know me from a youtube guide or two over the past year and a half, or a (hopefully educational and nice) stream that I run at twitch.tv, or even my participation in the State of Sanctuary, all under the nickname Deadset. I have done a similar in-depth exploration for Patch 2.1.2, Patch 2.3, Patch 2.4 and I am back at it for my cross class guides. Below you can find my full impressions of the patch, as well as links to all detailed, full-blown explanations of 2.4.1 builds!

EXCEL SHEET OF ALL GUIDES/VIDEOS

S6 STARTER SET BUILDS

Barbarian: Raekor Furious Charge

Full Video Guide: LINK

Playstyle: If you are looking for a high risk, high reward playstyle, you are probably looking at its best example this patch. Raekor is reworked but remains true to its roots with a fast-paced playstyle that thrives on trash clearing and requires good judment when, what, and how to engage. This is the Barbarian glass cannon, and being a close combat build it requires excellent knowledge of monster progression (which fights are worth your time, which are likely to kill you, etc). If you have it though, the potential for GR clears is sky high.

Personal opinion: I continue to dislike Raekor for all its characteristics since its 2.1 (?) rework. Raekor is the fishing master, the playstyle requires precision and practice, and pushing can be a more frustrating experience than other builds (Unfavorable elites? Bad RG? Run ends!) With Raekor, it becomes all or nothing earlier in GR progression than other builds, but in the right circumstances the ceiling for clears is unrivaled. I guess the slight refocusing to Ancient Spear in 2.4.1 is also nice, you actually feel it chunking the enemy.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR90+ end expect it to reach around 100 when fully optimized.

Crusader: Akkhan/Invoker Thorns

Playstyle and Personal opinion: Since it's a variation of the pure Invoker Thorns build, my opinion of the two is basically the same - please check it out below!

Demon Hunter: Marauder Cluster Arrow

Full Video Guide: LINK

Playstyle: As safe and consistent as an endgame Demon Hunter can get, the Marauder places a solid wall of pets and sentries in the way of monsters, while it safely picks them off from the distance. Resource management nightmares will be largely dealt with through perma-Vengeance Seethe, and the build's arsenal of slows and chills keeps demons at bay, allowing for a beginner-friendly Demon Hunter experience.

Personal opinion: This is as close to a chill Demon Hunter playstyle as you'll get. Even a casual Demon Hunter player will reach GR75+ with relative ease if he plays consistently and gears properly. The set continues to receive buff after buff, making it a breeze to start a season with.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR85+, and expect it to clear slightly above GR90 when fully optimized.

Mystic Ally Inna Monk

Full Video Guide: LINK

Playstyle: How does a summoner Monk sound to you? How about a super safe, relaxed Monk build? How about the two combined? If all those propositions sound good, look no further than the Inna Mystic Ally build. With a straightforward gearing process, simple playstyle and the opportunity to expand into a Mystic Ally-EP hybrid with an even higher potential (and skill ceiling!), the Inna Monk is a great seasonal starting point.

Personal opinion: As a fanboy of pull mechanics, I'm a sucker for Cyclone Strike builds. Any Monk build that takes Cyclone Strike automatically receives +1 in my book. The option to expand the build into MA-EP hybrid is a great example of a modifiable build to suit your needs - the pure pet Monk is simpler, the EP variation has a higher GR ceiling. Either way, I really like the playstyle.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR90+, and expect it to clear slightly above GR95 when fully optimized.

Zunimassa Witch Doctor

Written guide update coming very soon!

Playstyle: The build wields an army of Fetishes at its side, but gets the bulk of its damage done by the Doc shooting Poison Darts alongside his 5 closest summons. You will enjoy the build if you like pet-heavy builds, as well as hammering targets down individually with heavy single target damage.

**Personal opinion: The pet and positioning reliance of the build is really irksome at times, but the build is capable of pulling some very high damage numbers if the circumstances align in your favor.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR80+, and expect it to clear well above GR85 when fully optimized.

DMO Arcane Orbit Wizard

Full Video Guide: LINK

Playstyle: The Arcane Orbit Wizard is a bursty, mobile and relatively safe melee spellcaster. It requires very simple stack management for the amount of damage it can deliver, turning it into one of the most beginner-friendly playstyles.

Personal opinion: Durable, melee range, crowd control heavy, need I say more? It's one of my favorite Wizard playstyles ever since it came out.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR85+ and expect it to clear well above GR90 when fully optimized.

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GROUP BUILDS

Energy Twister with Tal Rasha

Playstyle: The heir to the DMO version of the Twister build, the Tal Rasha version retains much of the playstyle (abuse of corners, stacking mechanics, etc.), but has little more varied rotation, and looks a little flashier - it's Tal's after all. If you hated the build in the past, you're not going to love it now, but its group power is undeniable and expected to dominate much (if not all) of the 2.4.1 group meta.

Barbarian Support

Playstyle: Abandoning his globe spawning role, the Support Barb is mostly a buffs and pulls master, an adept scout, and continues to be the overall leader of the support pack.

Monk Support

Playstyle: Similarly to the Barb, the support Monk ditches globe duties in favor of some skill-dependent healing. He fully retains his DPS guardian role.

Witch Doctor Support

Playstyle: Perhaps closest to his 2.4 form, the Support Doc adds some flavorful Wormwood Locust Swarms, but that's about it.

Personal opinion of the meta: I wasn't really looking forward to Darude Sandstorm and his mighty followers for a 2nd season in a row, but eh.** Expectation of performance of the group: GR120+

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SOLO BUILDS

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BARBARIAN

Leapquake with Might of the Earth

Playstyle: If you are looking for a clean, logical rotation and a more methodical approach to fights, you will enjoy Leapquake a great deal. The build dishes out a lot of crowd control and has a built-in pull to ease the AoE damage Earthquake specializes in. It does not slack in single target either, with Skular's Salvation empowered Boulder Tosses helping smooth out the usual Barbarian disparity of quick rift clear and agonizing slog through the Guardian. If keywords like 'deliberate pace', 'stun-heavy' and 'AoE and single target balance' sound attractive, look into the Leapquake build.

Personal opinion: This was one of my 2.4 favorites, and my opinion stands in 2.4.1 - less gimmicky than other builds, solid rotation built in. I love specs that lean on pulls anc CC, so I have some personal bias here, but really - try it out if you haven't!

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR85+ and expect it to clear slightly above GR90 when fully optimized.

Whirlwind with BK/Wastes

Playstyle: If you are looking for a build that feels fast, excels at hit and run tactics, and thrives the more enemies it can lure to chase it, then give the Whirlwind Barb a spin. It is very demanding to perfect gear-wise, and arguably does not reward you for it enough, but WW is always a blast to play.

Personal opinion: Wastes set needs retouching, relying on CC secondaries for some decent damage reduction from APDs is absurd. Up until you hit your toughness ceiling and you start feeling like paper, WW barb is pretty darn cool. Some number upgrades (especially Skull Grasp finally being multiplicative) push the build farther out.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR80+ and expect it to clear slightly above GR85 when fully optimized.

Rend IK and HotA IK

Playstyle: I see these two builds as two sides of the same coin, using the base power of the Immortal King set (perma-Berserk and Ancients) to twist them for their own needs (mobile, DoT based playstyle for Rend, and a static, fight-to-fight playstyle for HotA). If you don't mind playing slightly off the meta and enjoy a decent challenge, both builds will provide plenty of quirks to learn and optimize for.

Personal opinion: The 2.3 darlings are actually bumped up a little with changes to their sets (IK and Wastes sets getting a bump in numbers, the 2.4 Endless Walk set getting added to HotA, etc.) If you don't mind playing a little outside the meta, these builds are still damn fun and different.

Expectation of performance: I have seen both builds clear GR80+ and expect both to clear slightly above GR85 when fully optimized.
Frenzy Thorns // Coming Soon!

Playstyle: -

Personal opinion: This actually exists, and is pretty cool!

Expectation of performance: 95+.

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CRUSADER

Bombardment Legacy of Nightmares Crusader

Playstyle: The Bombardment Crusader continues to be an oddity, with autoaimed volleys making up most of your attacks, having a single hyper-burst moment with a huge downtime, and spending most of the run focusing on survival. The playstyle has its intricacies - cooldown management, toughness issues, picking a proper fight - and would appeal to you if you enjoy setting up a fight and demolishing the enemy in single, spectacular shots.

Personal opinion: I'd definitely play this if I wanted to get on the Crusader leaderboard. It has some decision making as it's not the most durable build around, but that pales in comparison to its damage potential. I can certainly see people not digging the playstyle just based on how detached it feels from the battle, as you only take care of one offensive cooldown, and spend the rest of your attention on positioning and survival.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR90+ and expect it to clear in around GR100 when fully optimized.

Invoker Thorns Crusader

Playstyle: The king of the chill endgame, Invoker Thorns is (to my knowledge) the only build that can go full tank and still clear 80+ with no twitch reflexes, heart stopping situations and instant leave decisions. Do not get me wrong, it will not clear every rift, but it will clear most of what your gear is capable of at a steady, unrelenting pace. If you ever wanted to play a solo build without flashy gimmicks but a true sense of invincibility, pick Invoker Thorns and do not look back.

Personal opinion: I have always enjoyed the Invoker take on the Thornsader, it's a straightforward melee build that doesn't go into full downtime mode on the off cycles of CoE. If you don't mind the lack of flashy, you'll feel right at home. I know I did.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR85+ and expect it to clear slightly above GR90 when fully optimized.

Blessed Hammer Seeker of the Light Crusader

Playstyle: The 2.3 favorite has consistently received slight buffs to keep it from completely falling out. It is no longer reliant on kiting and stutter stepping (phew), and fights at a steadier pace that jumps into a fight and stays in its midst until it's over. If you enjoy slamming into the thick of the fight and mowing enemies with holy power, Hammerdin might just be the guy for you.

Personal opinion: Ever since 2.4, I've been pretty happy with how Hammerdin plays; now they get an additional buff in the form of Johanna's Argument 100% Hammers damage increase, bumping the build up yet again. I don't expect it to compete for the top spot, but you can definitely get some enjoyment out of the build.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR80+ and expect it to clear well above GR85 when fully optimized.

Sweep Attack Rolands Crusader

Playstyle: The Sweep Sader thrives in density due to the Golden Flense mechanics, but can be quite fearless even in the thickest of fights due to his strong control capabilities. If you enjoy near-permanent CC and enemy manipulation, Sweep Sader can be your guy.

Personal opinion: I have always enjoyed the janitor Crusader; then again, any build that vacuums enemies and destroys them in a near-helpless state will earn my seal of approval. He hasn't gained an inch when it comes to single target potential, but the Roland set continues to get an improvement after improvement. If you don't mind a little fishin', you can take this build quite high.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR80+ and expect it to clear well above GR85 when fully optimized.

Condemn Akkhan Crusader

Playstyle: Akkhan remains untouched in the defensive front (very disappointing for Patch 2.4.1), but its damage multipliers remain through the roof. One of its undeniable upsides is that this is one of the more enjoyable, fluid and visually appealing Crusader builds. If you are a fan of consistent AoE clear, crowd control immunity and the general feeling of a vortex of destruction, and you don't plan on pushing the highest of high GR tiers, try Condemn out.

Personal opinion: I still propose the trade of 150% of Akkhan's damage multiplier for a 50% reduction in damage; I don't think Mirinae as a form of sustain will pull you through burst, but it's something at least. Bane of the Stricken takes care of the formerly torturous Rift Guardian clears, and Vacuum never ceased to be one of the most satisfying pulls in the game. Somewhat similar to Raekor, you have to fully accept that elites will only be killed as collateral damage, and keep moving forward.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR80+ and expect it to clear slightly above GR85 when fully optimized.

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DEMON HUNTER

LoN Fan of Knives

Playstyle: Arguably one of the most interesting playstyles in the game, the LoN FoK Hunter relies on the Shi Mizu mechanic to drop to low health, get guaranteed crits, and stay there for the entirety of the run. If you enjoy exotic builds with high skill cap and Leaderboard potential, this is the build for you.

Personal opinion: I love this build for what it is: twisting expectations, going for obscure item interactions, all the good aRPG stuff. Downside is, of course, THUMP THUMP THUMP

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR95+, and expect it to clear around GR100 when fully optimized.

Unhallowed Essence Multishot DH

Playstyle: What do you imagine when you hear Demon Hunter? I personally think of a lone, brooding archer mowing demons down from a distance with a spray of arrows. This is the exact 'archer' fantasy fulfilled: no gimmicks, no pets, no vaulting like a madman.

Personal opinion: UE is on a buff streak, which makes me happy. The playstyle is easy to grasp and execute, and having a small margin of human error when executing mechanics leaves more space for better judgment of combat, positioning, and damage potential. I greatly enjoy Multishot, and so should you! :D

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR90+, and expect it to clear slightly above GR95 when fully optimized.

Rain of Vengeance Natalya DH

Playstyle: This is a high skill cap, mid-range playstyle that balances AoE and single target burst relatively well. With a slew of quality of life upgrades, several number boosts and some synergistic new items, Natalya remains a decently competitive playstyle. If you enjoy a challenging build that rewards you with relative consistency, this is the Demon Hunter build for you.

Personal opinion: Receiving a slight damage bump in 2.4.1, I can hardly talk about mind-blowing Natalya changes. If you are tired of playing the Legacy of Nightmares spec and its endless thump-thump on a flashing screen, you can give good ol' Natalya a spin.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR85+, and expect it to clear around GR90 when fully optimized.

Impale Shadow DH

Playstyle: The Impale DH excels at assassination - sounds cool in theory, but in the AoE reality of Diablo, it plays out less smoothly. Regardless, it is more than capable of taking you to endgame, if not competition, on the strengths of its single target potential - ideally spread through Area Damage.

Personal opinion: In its doubled damage state of 2.4.1, the Impale DH actually plays more smoothly. Try it out if you enjoy seeing targets pop one by one.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR85+, and I expect it to clear around GR90 when fully optimized.

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MONK

SSS Uliana Monk

Playstyle: This is the most visually impressive Monk playstyle, using two iconic effects - Exploding Palm and Seven-Sided Strike - in a devastating whole-screen combo. The playstyle retains most of its characteristics: scales well with density, and takes advantage of snapshot mechanics. If you like a playstyle that rewards metagame knowledge and you like to research interactions of mechanics to get the most out of your build, try Uliana.

Personal opinion: This build is fun, but I don't have a taste for the wonky mechanics to snapshot Mythic Rhythm. The coolness factor of the build is undeniable though, seeing a Seven-Sided Strike detonate an entire screen's worth of Exploding Palms will never get old.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR90+, and expect it to clear slightly above GR95 when fully optimized.

Shenlong Inna/Raiment Monk

Playstyle: On a surface look, the Generator Monk can seem too simplisic. There's more to it beneath the hood however, with Attack Speed vs. pure Damage considerations, and plently of tinkering for those who enjoy it. But even if you don't - if you enjoy consistency, durability, straightforward cooldown management, and solid-feeling melee builds, you can get great mileage out of this build.

Personal opinion: This remains a solid playstyle, and the primary skill buffs (Simplicity's Strength & Depth Diggers becoming multiplicative) do it a lot of good. If you wanna punch things to death and don't have a whole week to fish for your GR solo attempts, this is a great build to go for.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR90+, and expect it to clear slightly above GR95 when fully optimized.

SWK Wave of Light Monk

Playstyle: This is the unique take on a ranged Monk, using Wave of Light's AoE potential, Tzo Krin's Gaze ranged mechanic, and the Pinto's Pride bracer superslow effect into a surprisingly effective combo. If you are the type of player to go for the exotic, unorthodox build, or simply want to try a ranged Monk, try out the Wave of Light SWK.

Personal opinion: This playstyle is growing to be pretty badass, having its damage doubled and still retaining its characteristic distance. Kyoshiro's belt is still a pain to work around, but the set multipliers are well worth the hassle. I highly recommend checking it out.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR85+, and expect it to clear well above GR95 when fully optimized.

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WITCH DOCTOR

Helltooth Gargantuan Witch Doctor

Playstyle: Regardless if you're a fan of pet builds, a DoT/curse afficionado, or enjoy a little of each, the Helltooth Gargantuan build is a prime example of the best of both worlds. The build relies on the overpowering strength of the Gargantuan summons from the Helltooth set, augmented by your own entrapping Wall of Death debuffs. A very flavorful, and top tier, Witch Doctor build.

**Personal opinion: You will either love it or hate it, depending on how you feel about pets doing the damage for you. Personally, I'm a big fan, but it is worrisome that the build overshadows the others by so much.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR90+, and expect it to clear well above GR95 when fully optimized.

Jade Harvester Witch Doctor

Playstyle: One of the more intricate melee spellcaster playstyles, Jade Harvester specializes in the application of DoTs and their nuke-like consumption. The set has received a significant upgrade to its survivability and damage potential, and it is no longer the perma-Spirit Walk reliant build you might remember. If you are looking for a high skill cap, nuke-oriented playstyle that relies a lot on player assessment of combat, the Jade Harvester might be the playstyle for you.

Personal opinion: Once you get past some pre-conceived notions about Witch Doctors, you can really get in a groove with Jade. I appreciate a build that causes you to re-learn a class and its combat playstyle, even if it doesn't turn out to be the top tier WD build.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR85+, and expect it to clear well above GR90 when fully optimized.

Firebats LoN Witch Doctor and Carnevil LoN Witch Doctor

Playstyle: Both playstyles take advantage of the inborn durability of the Legacy of Nightmares setup, creating a visually impressive and fun AoE build for the Firebats build, and a single target, pet-reliant specialist for the Carnevil build. If you don't mind farming builds that are slightly harder to gear for, you can find something cool in both playstyles.

Personal opinion: Both builds are quite fun, durable and consistent. They require less things to keep track of than most set builds (less stacks/effects to keep track of), which is always a plus. Ancient items can be a pain to farm though.

Expectation of performance: I have seen both build clear GR85+, and expect them to clear well above GR90 when fully optimized.

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WIZARD

Archon Wizard

Playstyle: Fitting its name, this Wizard spec strives to enter and remain in Archon form as long as it can. It's a master of demolishing elites - especially in its Firebird variation - but possesses a well-rounded skill kit for most situations, making it the ideal soloing build.

Personal opinion: With the option to go for the safer Vyr set or the all-out Firebird variation, Archon builds have turned surprisingly adaptable to player's needs. The lack of skill differentiation between the two specs is unfortunate, but its GR climbing power cannot be denied.

Expectation of performance: I have seen this build clear GR95+, and expect it to clear above GR100 when fully optimized.

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Closing Words

So what's next?

I will be posting a similar thread on both the US and EU general forums, and I will be doing gearchecks / answering questions there as well, so drop by if you're interested! I will be adding links to this thread once the bnet threads are live.

I hope you enjoy the guides, and they are of future use to you in Season 6. Thank you for reading and good hunting!

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Wizard: Found a super easy Firebirds Set Dungeon Mastery Build

So after struggling with a few different builds I saw in videos, I decided to try the best stuff of each build. I'm 644 paragon with 3 ancient firebirds pieces. Here's what I did:

Took off both rings and amulet. I didn't reroll any item to optimize. Items I used:

• Firebird gloves
• Firebird source
• Firebird feet
• Firebird pants
• Firebird shoulders
• Firebird head
• Aquila Cuirass
• Hergbrash binding (need this for aquila)
• Ranslor's folly
• Non-ancient Twisted sword

Cube:

• Etched sigil (crucial)
• Nilfur's Boast
• Convention of Elements

You don't actually need the nilfur's anymore because you just have to hit a buncha mobs when you die, not kill them. It might have helped w/ my meteors though.

Skills:

• Teleport - Wormhole
• Diamond Skin - Crystal Shell
• Energy Twister - Gale force
• Energy Armor - Prismatic armor
• Disintegrate - Convergence
• Meteor - Molten Impact

I liked molten impact better due to it doing a buncha damage and not spamming meteors while you are trying to get the 20 enemy burn.

Paragon stats (order of importance):

• Move Speed, vita
• Remove all offense stats
• Armor, AR, Life, LR
• AD, RCR, LoH

Now, here is the reason why this build works so well. You are able to use disintegrate to burn down the little guys for the burning goal. Then, when you need to kill non-elites, the tornado spam from etched sigil does a buncha damage. That's basically it. I tried this without etched sigil and I couldn't burn down non-elite packs fast enough. I finished with 1 min 15 seconds left using this method.

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Aether Walker Wizard is the most fun I've ever had in Diablo 3.

I played this game since its release several years ago, and I've never had as much fun with the game until recently when I started playing with the Aether Walker Meteor set up that people have been using to solo clear 60+ GRs. 

It's by far the most enjoyable AND efficient solo spec I've ever played.

A big turn off for solo farming rifts for me are the nasty elite affixes, and this build completely bypasses this problem since you're normally skipping elites anyways. 

And my favorite thing about this build is its super high learning curve, because as long as you are skilled enough you can pretty much guarantee your survival. 

Be warned, if you just picked up this spec, expect to die... A LOT. It really is a steep learning curve, but its also very rewarding once you master it. 

Also, this build can consistently solo clear mid 40s in sub 5 minutes no matter the mob composition!

Anyone who has an Aether Walker and not using it, I highly recommend trying this build out!! ITS SO MUCH FUN:

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beginners/advance guide from top 10 wizard (seasons) (gear/builds)

There is only 2 builds i am only going to show the one everyone knows firebirds and the beginning one disintegrate.

Short range disintegrate

Use this until you achieve firebirds: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#UROSji!SigT!YbZZaa

It's fairly simple, i use this to lvl up and also use it to do t3/t4 rifts, i was able to do t3 very effectively i also got to grift 22 with this build.

Some notes

have to use a slow 2h, makes the build most effective, 3 items that make the build a tad better, moonlight ward/andarials visage/string of ears since you will be in melee range. and you simply go for crit/crit dmg/%ele/%distengrate/%hydra.

the hydra is really under-rated imo, people only are using it for firebirds but it's great for any build because of arcane dynamo.

you can switch familiar with teleport if you want, i only use teleport for higher grifts i don't find it necessary even when i'm doing t6 rifts.

My firebirds build

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#lNOSji!Zfhe!YYZZac

this is a tad different from others, like i said i only use teleport for high Grifts, use pinpoint barrier for lower torments/Grifts and use prismatic armour for higher torments/Grifts. and i never use illusionist, i rarely use teleport already so i don't find it much useful, but take out conflag if you do want to use it.

Some items that help

end game firebirds uses a furnace but since it's really rare you are always going to use 1h/off-hand until than, the off-hand being firebird's. the best 1h's are WoH/sun keeper > serpent wand > devastator/burning axe. i am currently using a devastator instead of a serpent wand simply because my wand rolled horrible and my devastator out dmg it by a good amount.

you want to try to use cindercoat as your chest and since blackthornes neck rolls really good now try to find one of those and use 2p of blackthorns neck/belt with RoRG for the 3set bonus. but unity/stone of jordan is superior, unfortunately i only have a unity/RoRG but still rolling my unity.

Also you want to go for area dmg on most items you can, it's not superior to CC/Crit dmg, but it's superior to %blizzard dmg or AS, for rings you want, int/socket/CC/crit dmg, neck you want either int/CC/crit dmg/%ele dmg OR socket, you don't want to trade either CC or crit dmg for the socket though.

Sockets on your rings are a must, socket on your neck isn't but it's still good. the 2 best gems at least imo would be "bane of the powerful" and "zei's stone of vengeance".

this is the end of my small guide, it's really just to help out all wizards on their gear/builds. hopefully it helps you.

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Wizards: Advanced Firebird Guide - Solo and Group Build for GR 35+

Introduction
This guide is aimed at people that are already confident in clearing T6 with ease, and know the basics behind the build. It is meant to be a guide at what worked best for me in clearing lvl 35+ Greater Rifts. *There are of course other ways to do this, but this is simply the way I have found to be the most effective.

In this guide, I will cover gearing, skill choice relative to gear, spell placement (please read the guide linked at the top for a more in depth look), and general GR 35+ rifting strategy (yes, there is strategy) for Wizards.

I am (barely) in the top 100 for seasonal solo Wizards, and most recently cleared a 39, which took me two tries (missed first by 10 seconds). I have not died once in a solo Greater Rift over 35. I have not tried 40, which would push me into the top 30 or so, but I am confident at being able to clear it given good enough density and not a rift of Executioners and Imps.

For 4 mans, our group most recently cleared a 42 with a makeup of 2 DH, Wiz, and ZDPS Monk.

Anyways, enough credentials, lets get started.

Basics
So before we get into specific builds - lets cover the basics.

Like I mentioned earlier in the guide - this guide is meant for Wizards which can already clear T6 in their sleep, and have kind of reached a soft cap at GR 35.

This means you already have near optimal...

Gear
The following is a list of the gear you need for this to work.

Ideally, none of your gear will have any wasted rolls. The following are considered wasted rolls.

• Life Regen (unless your boots rolled a single resist)
• Area dmg
• Resource Cost Reduction
• ANY % SKILL DMG
• Increased Attack Speed
• Life Per Hit (keep this for RoRG - it at least benefits you a little)

Secondary rolls are actually extremely important as well. Obviously, monster XP, reduced lvl req, and Dura loss negation are useless. Health Globe bonus, single resistances, and melee or ranged reduction all quickly add up to considerable bonuses.

Bolded Items are what I consider to be best in slot. Please read after the items for ideal rolls on them, and general notes.

• Firebird Helm, Leorics with high %- Int, Vit, Socket with diamond, CC.
• A good amulet - bonus points for Hellfire, Etlitch, or Absorb amulets - you can also use Blackthorn with Belt. - I find Cold balls hurt the most, ideal would be a Cold Absorb Amulet with Socket, CHD, CC, Fire %.
• Firebird Chest or a good Cindercoat. Int, Life %, Armor, 3 OS. Secondary with 7% ranged reduction.
• Magefist, or Firebird Gloves - Fire %, Int, Vit, CHD, CC. You will need to roll off the inherent IAS to get these rolls.
• Strongarms - Fire %, Int, Vit, CC - secondary with 7% ranged reduction.
• Either Witching Hour, String of Ears, Blackthorns Amulet+belt. Int, Life %, Vit, either CHD if WH, or Armor
• Firebird Shoulders - Int, Vit, Life %, CDR
• Firebird Pants - Int, Vit, Armor, 2 OS.
• Firebird Boots - Int, Vit, Armor, All res.
• RoRG - Int, CHD or CC, LoH, OS
• Unity - CC, CHD, OS, Elite dmg
• SoJ - Fire %, CC or CHD, Elite dmg, OS.
• Furnace - Int, % Dmg, Vit, OS.
• Sun Keeper - Int, Vit or CDR, % dmg, Elite Dmg, OS
• Firebird Source - Fire %, Int, Vit or CDR depending on weapon
• Zei's Stone of Vengeance
• Bane of the Trapped
• Gem of Efficacious Toxin/Bane of the Powerful

There is very little room for gear variance - bear in mind that there are relatively very few Wizards that can play this high solo. This particular build requires these particular items.

I've seen the Serpent Sparker used with success, but it requires different stat rolls on gear, and different skills. I wont go into detail, but it requires TnT, a Witching Hour, and Hydra % on Shoulders, Source, Chest. It differs from the regular firebird build as its damage is split roughly 50-50 between the DoT and Hydra dmg, while most Firebird builds focus on the DoT as the main damage source.

Cindercoat vs Magefist
This is bolded because I see many Wizards uses a Cindercoat because of the RCR.

Magefists are better, they roll 5 primaries, and you dont need RCR. Done.

Templar Gear
Yes, seriously.

• Thunderfury, Ruby - Proc counts as CC
• Freeze of Deflection - More CC.
• Ess of Johan OR Overwhelming Desire. Either pulls, or charmed with extra dmg.
• Wyrdward- Proc Stuns with TF
• Unity

Bear in mind CDR does affect your Templar. You dont really have to go for damage (but its always nice), but you want to maximize all the CC and heals he does.

Prioritze IAS so he attacks more to proc TF CC and Ess pulls, and CDR so you get more heals/intervenes. Having Block % on the relic is a easy change too - more freezes from his shield.

Skills should be

• Heal
• Either, you won't need the slow, but its always helpful, as is life regen.
• Charge+stun
• Guardian - charge, knockback and heal.

Gems

Zeis and Trapped are both separate damage multipliers, and increase your damage much more than powerful, which is additive.

Toxin will also always be up, while Powerful will not help you as much vs the RG, when you need it most. Its really up to you which you choose though.

Skills

This is the build.

A couple of notes about the skill choices.

Teleport Runes

I prefer Safe Passage, as sometimes you just have to run through DoTs - it also scales nicely with high toughness/mitigation.

Calamity is another solid choice. Sometimes you make a bad teleport, and this gives you a second to plan your next move.

Wormhole I dont like - its only really useful if you die. Bear in mind that if you get hit just once, you will be able to teleport again with any other rune, effectively rendering Wormhole almost useless in combat.

Fracture - your clones' spells do NOT do damage, and do NOT proc any CC effects including Black Hole and Slow time.Useless.

Reversal - interesting Rune, but requires plenty of foresight, and doesnt help when there is just too much crap everywhere.

Energy Armor - Prismatic Vs Force

Both have their upsides and downsides

Prismatic

• Better against DoTs. Crucial vs frozen in late 30s, or 40s, when 2 frozen blobs spawning on you means death.
• Works well with String and Etlich.
• Doesnt prevent you getting 1 shot.

Force Armor

• Is better when weenies start taking away more than 1/3 your HP in 1 hit.
• Still doesnt guarantee immunity to, but offers much more protection against getting 1 shot.
• Jailers wont kill you as often.
• Terrible against DoTs. 2 Frozen Blobs = respawn.

It really boils down to two factors.

• Are you Single Player or Multiplayer? (IE are you using Unity cheese?) Unity doubles your toughness, and effectively magnifies the effect of Prismatic armor, allowing you to continue to use it to a higher level.
• Whats your toughness? If you have a good amount of toughness, you can use Prismatic until later.

Anecdotally, my wiz has 18M toughness with Prismatic.

I have run nothing but Prismatic in Single player with Unity, and my toughness still is keeping up; I have yet to die up to 40.

EDIT - I tried 40 4 times today, and died for the first time(s) in a solo GR. The closest I got was off by about 10 seconds (STONESINGER... but a shitty floor), the furthest was about 7 minutes (lolwingedassassinsfastfirechainsvortex). It really is RNG based.

In groups, I swap on Force armor starting at 37-8 because Jailers start to 1 shot me.

The toughness threshold honestly is mostly defined as - At what point am I 1-shot by Jailer/Thunderstorm?

Slow Time - Point of no Return Vs. Time and Space

Both are viable.

Point of no Return allows you to lock down a chokepoint, and gives you at least 3 seconds for your Teleport cooldown to reset. I prefer this one.

Time and Space makes all those ranged guys a joke, but will not save your life in a big fight.

Blur vs Glass Cannon

Once again, this depends on what your toughness is at.

Are you at a point where you are running force armor and the toughness loss still has you taking only 35% per hit? May be worth it to run Glass Cannon and just accept Frozen killing you.

Are you at a point where Prismatic is still viable, or Blur is the difference between taking >1/3 your HP per hit? Blur, undoubtedly.

Importance of CDR

Many wizards I see dont have Evocation slotted, or use an Amethyst in their helms. These are bad mistakes - CDR is absolutely vital for Firebird - your main damage is your DoT, and your main method of getting your DoT is your Black Hole, which is also invaluable Crowd Control. CDR also affects Teleport and Slow Time.

Illusionist and Unstable are irreplacable.

Notes about Slow Time

This skill is the core of this build. Firebird only has 1 skill slot that is swappable, the one taken by Hydra in the cookiecutter build.

Reasoning for taking Blizz over Hydra is that you are mainly using it to refresh your DoT, and draw aggro, which it is by far better at. Hydra, while more damage, is not as good at either.

Now some technical aspects of the skill Slow Time - Point of no Return.

• Beware that Slow Time actually... Slows Time. Projectiles that are already slow to begin with become much harder to make out - the human eye is attracted to movement. You WILL run into bees moving at .0001 MPH if you are not paying attention.
• Enemies are stunned when they first touch the perimeter of the sphere. This means if enemies are already within the sphere when it is created, they will be slowed, but not stunned until they exit the bubble. However,
• You can pull enemies which are inside of the bubble to the perimeter to proc the stun with your Black Hole.
• This also means that once you get used to the radius, you can put down the bubble so the perimeter stuns an enemy immediately on spawn.
• An enemy can only be stunned once by one bubble. This means if an enemy is stunned upon entering, then traverses the bubble to get to you, he is not be stunned again upon exit.
• However, you can layer your bubbles. By putting a new Slow Time several yards off center of the first one, you can effectively create Roadblocks at Chokepoints.
• Enemies which enter a bubble through means other than walking - Jumpers, Chargers, disappearing Snakes, etc, will not be stunned when traversing the plane.
• The only elite affix that is affected by Slow time is Electrified.

Elite Affixes

Elites should be the #1 cause of your very scarce number of deaths.

The main factor which determines which affixes are the most dangerous to you is your choice of Prismatic vs Force, which in turn mostly depends on whether you are running solo or in a group.

Prismatic Bad affixes

• Jailer
• Thunderstorm

Force Bad Affixes

• Everything that is not Jailer and Thunderstorm.
• Frozen and Molten at 40+ are extremely painful.

Some notes regarding Jailer

This is your main reason for using Force Armor.

Jailer requires line of sight. If you cannot see the monster, you cannot be jailed. Mostly.

Jailer is usually on a timer - You are usually safe after a round of jailing for 6-7 seconds. I say usually because sometimes for no reason you will be jailed 3 times in less than a second.

Jailer seems to have less range than Frozen.

Some notes regarding Frozen

This will be your main cause of death in a group over 40. Even one ball spawning on you will most likely drain 50%-80% of your HP, even if you reaction time is good enough to immediately teleport away.

Frozen does not requires line of sight, and will come get you even if you are in the next room over.

Depending on which affixes you are facing, your choice of place to fight is very important.

• Vs Frozen, Arcane, Plagued, Poison enchanted, Thunderstorm, you want to be out in the open. The ground effects will not stack with each other as much, and gives you a lot more room to dodge.
• Vs Jailer, Vortex, Firechains, Electrified you want to be at a chokepoint. You can completely dominate chokepoints with your Slow time - so long as you are not forced out by nasty ground affixes.

Some notes about annoying affixes for any Firebird build

• Shielding is a real pain in the ass - just like disappearing enemies. If your DoT is not maxed when the shield goes on, it will protect the monster long enough for it to drop off.
• Extra Health just takes forever to kill, especially on a Yellow that already is a monster type with super high HP (Demonic Tremor, Abbadon, etc)
• Fast+Molten/Firechains+ Vortex is an extremely deadly combo - especially on a mob type like Bees that spread everywhere.

Solo Wizardry

As with any other build, do your best to kite forward, and try to be fighting no more or less than 2 elites at once. Any more and you are prone to be overwhelmed, any less and you will not be able to beat the timer.

Don't stop for white packs that give you no progress, or small packs. Keep moving past that pack of 3 spearmen - Teleport and dodge. Do your best to keep them following you by aggroing with Blizzard until you meet another pack and can kill them all at once.

When you run into a really dangerous elite pack - IE Jailer, Frozen, Thunderstorm, Fast, you need to make a choice. Either you kite forward and try to outrange them to skip, or you kite in circles until they are almost dead, then go forward to kill. Keep in mind that if you skip a pack in the middle of a level you will most likely have to pass it again if you die.

Grabbing Health Globes with Teleports procced by Illusionist is key to survival - another reason why health globe healing bonus secondaries are great.

Don't grab health globes immediately if you don't need them!

Keep in mind you can abuse Teleport to go through walls - learn the Teleport mechanics.

Beware doing this when an elite that spawns nasty affixes (especially orbiter) has started pooping things out in the next room. Affixes in the next room will not render until after you have teleported.

Vs harmless whites kite forward. You need to kill the dangerous ones, or you will fail when they come to gank you from behind.

Abuse chokepoints, and Illusionist. Upon entering a room, cast Blizzard on all the spread out mobs, aggroing everything, Teleport back to the doorway, Cast Slow Time, then Black hole on the huge stack of stunned baddies. Teleport past them, and keep moving forward. Cast Slow Time again if you get hit, and keep moving forward.

If you get into trouble, your Slow Time plus Black Hole can often buy you enough time for your Teleport to come off of Cooldown.

Slow Time will save your life when you get cornered.

Manage your Cooldowns - don't go racing ahead in a rift full of Winged Assassins when all 3 spells are on cooldown.

Know that you need at least 2 minutes, probably 3 for the rift guardian unless you get Stonesinger.

Group Wizardry

This is where Slow Time really shines.

Your job as a Wiz is to pull anything and everything you can into the turrets, while creating a safe bubble for the DH to nuke from behind.

You should be ahead of everyone (takes 4 hits for you to die, remember). Keep moving forward until you find either an elite or a large group of whites. Draw all their aggro with blizz, kite back to the choke that your DH buddies should just be entering and set up your ST. Blizz, BH, teleport past them, rinse and repeat.

When fighting an elite, or a white mob in an open area, you should be looking around for more packs to aggro back into the guns. Run around avoiding stuff, and just aggro everything.

Vs Elite packs, bring them back to a choke, and start layering your Slow Times. Once they are almost dead, you should already be moving forward.

Spell Placement

I covered most of this in the Guide linked at the top, but when using Slow Time, this changes a little.

You want to cast your Slow Time to create a barrier between yourself and the enemy.

You dont want any baddies to already be inside, for they will be able to traverse the bubble before they are stunned.

This means that it is important to cast the spell before anything can get close to you, especially at chokes.

Sometimes, when a monster is faster than you, it is more prudent to cast Black Hole first to create space, then cast Slow Time.

Chokepoints can be held for at least 10-20 seconds with good Slow Time and Black Hole Placement. Layer your bubbles as closely as safety allows, and Black Hole things back away from you.

Kite things into your Slow Time bubble as closely as possible. Having 10 enemies spread across 180 degrees is impossible to black hole, but if all 10 are clumped into a 90 degree arc, you can get all with your Black Hole.

Keep in mind if you enter a room and are getting rushed by enemies from all angles, so long as nothing is in the bubble when you cast it, you gain a few seconds to determine your next move.

Conclusion

I hope this helped those who have been smashing their faces against mid 30 GRs without any progression. I've kind of reached that point with my group, barring super awesome RNG, I dont think we will be able to clear 43, despite being able to clear 90% of the 40s we do.

The Monster and HP scaling past 40 is just so ridiculous. Guardians have 70B+ HP solo (150B+ in a group), and affixes (Frozen especially) becomes so deadly that the slightest touch kills you. This is not a bad thing, just in general, advancement at this level becomes more and more RNG based - did we get glorious skeletons, friendly elite affixes and a Conduit/Stonesinger?

Dont get frustrated at RNG, and keep at it!

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Wizard Frozen Furor Build Guide

I would like to share with you, a build I've been running for some time now with great success. This is my second Wizard, and with Archon and CM/WW getting stale, I was determined to come up with something just as good, if not better than those signature builds. Thus, I came up with a build I coin "Frozen Furor". This build is viable at any monster power.

The Build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#bZQlST!gTW!cYZYca


Video:

Using a combination of Lighting and Ice, you become a force to be reckoned with! Dispatch large masses of mobs in seconds and burn through rares, elites, and goblins quickly!

Skills and Passives:

Shock Pulse: Living Lightning - This ability is a mid ranged attack used primarily to help generate arcane power and quickly stack up Arcane Dynamo to 5 stacks.

Ray of Frost: Sleet Storm - This is a close ranged, yet powerful 360 degree attack that deals a stream of rapid cold damage. Chills anything it touches, thus triggering your Cold Blooded passive, and does incredible damage when used properly with Arcane Dynamo.

Teleport: Wormhole - Great for traveling quickly around the map, breaking out of jailer, or avoiding any other nasty elite affix that may cross your path. Feel free to use any other rune that fits your play style here.

Blizzard: Stark Winter - Blizzard is an extremely powerful ability used at any range, especially when you extend its reach to 22 yards. This ability covers a large area and diminishes trash quickly. Added bonus of slowing movement speed of you enemies and applying a chill effect to trigger Cold Blooded passive.

Magic Weapon: Blood Magic - Increased damage and life steal. If you're using a two handed weapon with high life steal, feel free to swap the rune on this weapon, or exchange it completely. My recommendations if using a two hander... Force Weapon, Slow Time: Time Warp, Explosive Blast: Chain Reaction, or Diamond Skin: Prism.

Storm Armor: Reactive Armor - The skill that makes this build sing. Reactive armor is amazing passive damage to both melee and ranged mobs. It pairs wonderfully with life steal, especially with a two handed weapon. It procs every time you are hit, and reflects 70% weapon damage as lightning back to the attacker. You also have the benefit of Storm Armor firing off at 100% weapon damage periodically for considerable damage.

Reactive Armor also triggers when hit by Molten trails, Electrify bolts, Fire Chains, and Mortars. It does NOT however, trigger from Reflect damage, Desecrate, Plague, and Arcane beams.

Alternative Armors:

Ice Armor: Jagged Ice - Hits nearly twice as hard as reactive armor, can freeze enemies, and offers 12% melee reduction. However, it does not work against any ranged attackers.

Ice Armor: Crystallize - At 3 stacks, this increases your armor by 60%. If you like to stand in everything, this ability works great, especially against reflect, however, will not increase your damage versus many other packs that you have opportunities to reflect damage back.

No Armor Spell Option:

If you're brave, stick Explosive Blast: Chain Reaction, or Slow Time: Time Warp and drop your armor spell!

Passive: Critical Mass - Great for resetting the cool down on Teleport. Feel free to use any other passive if you do not feel the need to reduce that single cool down. Can try Blur, Power Hungry, Illusionist, or if you're brave, Glass Cannon instead.

Passive: Arcane Dynamo - At 5 stacks, this passive will increase the damage of your next attack by 75%! Paired with Living Lightning, this stacks up quickly, and when channeling Sleet Storm, as long as you channel, every tick of Sleet Storm has this amazing damage boost. This works great with Blizzard as well.

Passive: Cold Blooded - 20% extra damage against chilled or frozen targets, a must for this build.

Weapon Choices:

I would like to point out, that with this build, the lower your attack speed, the better Arcane Power management you will have. Focus on average damage, critical hit chance, and critical hit damage.

One-Handed - A slow, yet powerful one-handed weapon (Spear or Mace) with as much average damage that you can find with life steal and a socket. Any critical hit damage or main stat is an added bonus.

Two-Handed - A slow, 2 handed weapon (Skorn, or Doom Hammer with 1400+ average damage, socket, and life steal)

Off-Hand - The Oculus. Yes, this beauty of an offhand offers up incredible average damage, huge main stat roll, arcane power on crit, crit chance, up to 6% bonus damage vs elites, can increase the duration of your Blizzard ability (3 seconds max), and reduces the cool down on your Teleport ability (4 seconds max).

I try to gear for bonus vs elites, as it adds up damage quickly. I currently run with 14% bonus vs elites, though, can run up to 44% if I equip a Stone of Jordan.

A quick example: If you have 14% bonus vs elites, and 300K sheet damage, when you cross an elite, rare, or goblin, you will be damaging those opponents as if you had 342,000 sheet damage!

A few notes on gear selection...

I recommend 20 Arcane Power on Crit, if using one-handed weapon.. You can get away with 10 using a slow two-handed weapon paired with Diamond Skin: Prism, or picking Power Hungry as your a passive.

LOW attack speed. Sleet Storm shines with high average damage, crit, and crit damage, avoid attack speed if you can help it. If you're above 1.5 APS, you will start to find your Arcane Power draining too quickly.

I love a little pickup radius, never hurts to pick up all the gold, and, when you're channeling, you can just mouse over health globes to snag them if your radius is high enough.

You can use Frostburn Gauntlets with this build, as a matter of fact I recommend them! This turns Sleet Storm into 473% weapon damage as cold, and Blizzard into 663% over 6 seconds as cold. However, yes, a great pair of rare gloves will perform on par, or possibly better. I've run with Frosties for quite a while. Honestly, even with my nice crafted my gloves. I can't tell a difference in kill speed.

I enjoy farming Act 2 quite often, and I use Tyrael's Might for that reason. This allows me to do an addition 15% damage to any demons that cross me, it also supplements me with the ability to have 24% movement speed, an additional 4% vs elites, and the joy of using a nice crafted bracer.

Using a one-handed weapon and off-hand can make some reflect damage packs a touch tougher using Tyrael's instead of a 3-piece Zuni set. However this extremely easy to overcome!

I will be adding more to this guide as questions arise that I have not covered in this guide. Let me know what you think after you give it a shot.

Cheers!

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Wizard: Meteor is getting pretty popular again. Here is my take on it.

Skills and why I chose them

Meteor - Liquefy
Good damage dealer on impact and with a high critchance the 8 second pools are able to deal more damage over all than molten impact and generate a lot more procs for all the other skills.

Energy Twister - Wicked Wind
Starter motor for the meteors, low dmg high LoH to leech back up or against reflect.

Frost Nova - Deep Freeze
Deep freeze is an insane damage boost to the build. It lets more meteors crit, this leads to a lot more procs from the 8 second pools. And those procs generate more shocking aspect hits.

And the 3 standard choices from shocknadoshards:

Diamond Skin - Diamond Shards
Nice EHP boost and damage dealer all in one package, what's not to like?

Storm Armor - Shocking Aspect
We all know and love Shocking Aspect from the standard shocknado build. And surprisingly it works just as well here.

Explosive Blast - Chain Reaction
Lots of procs and good damage.

Passives: CM - Cold blooded - Conflagration. No surprises here.

Here is how it looks like in action
(If you don't have a Monk Pet yet... get one now :-D)


Liquefy Procrate
I was really surprised how many procs Liquefy is able to generate. I thought the pools only do something like 1 or 2 hits per second, with a pretty poor coefficient. It felt like a lot more.

Has anyone here more info on this?

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[Wizard] Interesting fire and ice ranged wizard build.

It's a pretty effective and balanced build from what I've seen. It's best to be played at a bit of range, farther out than one would stand with a CM build. Stay close enough so that the fire bolts reach the mobs. Fire bolts is an odd skill to have chosen but strangly its the only fire damage signature skill. It has decent dps and works well with critical mass to keep defenses strong. Frost nova and diamond skin have always been my go to defense combo. There are other good defensive skills like mirror image and teleport but I feel FS and DS to be much more fool proof.

You're pretty much going to want to be catching mobs in blizzards and hitting them with comets and fire bolts. Try to use your fire bolts where your meteors are going to hit and place your meteors where your fire bolts are hitting. Don't be stingy of the blizzards they buy you time while you kite if need be or dealing with large spread out mobs. Lastly if you like the build you might want to get an offhand with +% dmg to shock pulse, I'm using a decent Tal Rasha's glare.

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[Wizard] Rainbow Showers (1.0.5 PTR)

Playing on MP3 I did find a Meteor build I was very happy with. I originally posted this in a 1.0.5 PTR Wiz impressions thread but thought I would make it its own post here.

Build:

• Meteor / Meteor Shower
• Teleport / Fracture
• Explosive Blast / Unleashed
• Frost Nova / Cold Snap
• Diamond Skin / Prism<--this is actually great
• Storm Armor / Shocking Aspect
• Critical Mass
• Astral Presence (this could be Cold-Blooded)
• Evocation (this could be Cold-Blooded too- I'm just being conservative at the moment)

Gear. My source cost me 69m and is my most expensive piece of gear. All others can be had for 10-15 mil or less, and you can do even better without the MF I have on some 7 pieces.


My Stats:

• 2.04 APS (always want more)
• 48 crit chance (stack as high as you can obviously)
• 26 APoC (wouldn't run this with less than 20, not sure how 21-25 is)
• Meteor cost reduced by 3 (nice little bonus and easy to get on at least one piece of gear)
• 780 LoH (could have used a bit more but it was sufficient)
• 3.8k Armor/675 AR (again, always want more)
• 30k HP (wouldn't do too much less because single champs can break you out of permaskin)

With Prism up and my Meteor reduction, Showers cost 40 AP. Explosive Blast/Unleashed cost 3AP. Astral Presence gets you an extra meteor on rotation startup and helpfully increases your AP regen rate, which may or may not be necessary and further testing will help me out here. And of course that APoC is just vital as it constantly refills your globe while you are dropping Meteors.

Anyway, get up Prism, cast some Meteor Showers, port in and freeze to refresh your cooldowns, and faceroll 1-2-3 while holding the left mouse button. I was even able to take out single champs with this spec pretty well and I just melted any mob that numbered 3 monsters or more. The reduced delay on Meteor from 2s to 1.25s is HUGE and it makes the spec much more viable when you aren't standing there waiting 2 seconds for a shower to drop. As for permafreezing, packs are absolutely permafreezed but sometimes Champions (yellow guys) who live longer than their adds can get a few hits off. The new CC mechanics are a huge boon to Frost Nova because that first freeze lasts for a whole 3 seconds and really lets you get wound up if you know what I mean. Fracture every now and then for elites is a nice single player survival buff which I need because of my resists and armor not being where I want them (and because of lack of Crystal Shell) but you can run what you're comfortable with. In group play I will probably run Safe Passage.

I haven't had this much fun on D3 in ages. I did die a few times because I was rushing and ended up porting into packs with molten or without any AP (elite Winged Moloks suck as usual, I'll take Phasebeasts any day), but mostly I was able to keep up with MP3 without too many issues. I could maybe go higher but I think I'll be up against a gear check pretty soon if I do.

I did also try Star Pact and Liquefy. Star Pact I couldn't spend my AP fast enough because Frost Nova takes up an attack turn in the rotation. This could be offset by trading APoC in your build for IAS. Liquefy just didn't have the AOE I wanted. Both could be viable but I found them rather clunky.

You can make budget changes to this build and it will definitely work for lower difficulties and/or kill monsters slower, but it still functions well. Storm Armor is a pure DPS choice and Energy Armor/Pinpoint Barrier raises your crit chance and your armor, making it very helpful on those fronts. To increase your IAS, run Slow Time/Stretch Time over Teleport. If you lack the necessary APoC, try out Star Pact over Meteor Shower.

You can also make powerful changes if your gear is better than mine. If your Crit and IAS are high enough, run Cold Blooded over one of the two non-CM passives, and run Bone Chill over Cold Snap. You could also try Chain Reaction over Unleashed but that might be dicey. If you want to farm faster, you should probably play Archon but if you are tired of that, try Wormhole over Fracture if you don't need it.

I'm so glad to see Meteor get these buffs and turn into a viable CM proc spell. Anyone else?

I will say again, the reason I don't like Spectral Blades paired with Meteor is that blades take up attack turns in your rotation, while Explosive Blast lacks a casting animation and is basically a free cast in terms of AP and spell rotation. Blades really slows you down in this way while EB lets you spend your attack turns on just Meteor and Frost Nova.

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[Wizard] Archon FAQ & Tips

 

  I've seen a lot of threads popping up about Archon, so I'm starting an FAQ thread. If you have a question please ask and I'll add it to the post.

 

Q&A:

Q: What are some baseline stat requirements to successfully farm with Archon?

A: While there is no exact number, my best estimate will have to do. In order to comfortably farm Act 3 I would recommend the following as a minimum:

• 25k Life
• 750 resists (w/ prismatic. Force armor is also viable with a different configuration of defensive stats)
• 6500 Armor (tip: bring your enchantress)
• 100k DPS (buffed)
• 2% Lifesteal
• 35% Crit Chance (to recharge Archon)
• 12%-25% movement speed
• Your mileage may vary. You can definitely get by with less but you will have no problems with these stats.

Q: What are the most popular Archon builds?

A: There are quite a few build variants right now as people are still experimenting. Here are a few I have collected:

• Quick-charge SC Archon - my personal favorite!
• Forked Lightning Archon
• Scramble Archon (not for the feint at heart)
• CM/SC Tank + Archon

Q: Do I need lifesteal?

A: Do you NEED a mouse to use a computer? No, but it helps! Lifesteal is the difference between running frantically hoping for a health globe and smashing your enemies without second thought. Lifesteal is worth losing dps over.

 

Q: Do I need AP on Crit?

A: Yes and no. While during Archon it has no purpose, it makes recharging much easier during downtime. See my tip below on Multiple Weapons.

 

Q: Are there any Best in Slot (BiS) items to look for?

A: Sortof. There are many different directions you can go with your gear. Here are some obvious choices, however:

• The Witching Hour - hands down best DPS belt. Try to snag one with vitality and armor or all resist.
• Lacuni Prowlers - Move speed, attack speed as a base. Find one with Crit and you'll never replace it.
• Mempo of Twilight - If you can find a Crit + Int roll, this is the best socketed helm you can get.
• Tal Rasha's Relentless Pursuit & Zunimassa's Marrow - both fantastic
• Vile Ward - without a doubt the best shoulders you can get.
• Depth Diggers - great if you're not 100 paragon yet. Lol.

Tips:

170k (and quickly growing) dps archon here. I've got a few tips that will make your life easier.

 

Multiple weapons

Since you NEED lifesteal during Archon and you NEED APoC to recharge quickly, I recommend using two weapons - one with lifesteal and tons of damage and a second with the only purpose of recharging archon.

 

Buy a cheap Wizardspike for your secondary weapon. It has excellent attack speed, AP on crit, a built in slow mechanic, is indestructable, and gives you extra resists (+80 all) when you need it most. This weapon is incredible for this purpose. DPS does not matter. Swap to this thing, fire a ton of tornados, and Archon is up within seconds.

 

Ideally your main weapon would have Int, Crit damage, Socket (green gem), and lifesteal. The Butcher's Sickle rolls with all of this, and it also has black damage if you use Triumvirate like I do.

 

Archon - Teleport

Sure, 25% bonus damage is nice, but this rune will save your life time and time again. Not to mention the ability to jump walls and generally run more quickly.

 

Diamond Skin vs. Frost Nova

I take Frost Nova as a standalone spell every time. It's just better. Rather than absorbing a triflin' 21k damage, this completely locks down enemies. You can still stunlock like CM/SC (especially with Wizardspike). ::edits:: Some have pointed out that Diamond Skin may be better if you are using Force Armor.

 

Life on Hit

What? LoH on an Archon build? Yep. I run 800 LoH currently (definitely overkill). This helps immensely during Archon downtime since it procs so splendidly with Storm Chaser's tornados. I wouldn't say this is a requirement at all, but it does help. I wouldn't be afraid to lose LoH for more DPS, however.

I also stream my Archon act 3 runs frequently. PM me if you want the link - I should be on this evening.

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[Wizard] Arcane Torrent Offensive Build

Since the release of 1.0.4, I've done a lot of experimenting with Arcane Torrent as it got one of the strongest buffs out of all the Wizard skills. After trying a bunch of different builds, I've nailed down a build that I really enjoy and is actually one of the best all-around builds I've come across.

Who is the build for:

This build is for Wizards who like to farm full acts, including trash mobs, elites, and bosses. If you're going for pure paragon farming, I'm pretty sure Archon + godly gear is still superior (but only by a little!)

What gear do you need:

You need lots of AP for this build, so I suggest either use a slow 2 handed weapon, or if you have fast attack speed: lots of crit chance and APoC. A helm that reduces cost of Arcane Torrent is awesome as well. My gear is actually a little bit too attack speed oriented, but as you will see in the video, it can still work.

Since this build is using Illusionist, and Prismatic Armor, you need some decent damage reduction, but you actually can have too much defense in this build, so life regen, life steal, LoH, are good defensive alternatives to armor and resist all. I will emphasize life steal is actually really awesome for this build since you will be doing tons of damage. LoH is not so good because Arcane Torrent has kind of a low proc rate.

The Build:

• Arcane Torrent - Disruption
• Arcane Hydra
• Magic Weapon - Force Weapon
• Familiar - Spark Flint
• Teleport - Fracture
• Force Armor - Prismatic
• Glass Cannon
• Astral Presence
• Illusionist

This build is all about offensive power. There is very little kiting involved as you kill most enemies (even elites with good gear), before they even get to you. That being said, you can still kite if you need to. There are 4 damage buffs from this build. 15% from Glass Cannon, 15% from magic weapon, 15% from disruption, and 12% from familiar. Not sure exactly how it all stacks, but needless to say there are very few builds that rival this in terms of DPS.

Strategy:

First of all, find the correct content that suits your gear. I'm at 60k DPS and I'm farming Act 3 and I only die to Phase Beasts and stupid mistakes. Find the sweet spot were enemies are generally doing more than 15% of your max HP in damage (to activate Illusionist) and less than 35% (otherwise prismatic isn't really helping you). The reason why I don't like force armor is because you are healing less effective HP with your life regen and life steal.

You may notice that I have no slows or stuns. And you may ask why would I have no slows? Because when you have a decently geared Templar and your decoys with fracture, the monsters are distracted long enough for you to kill them. I really don't miss having Blizzard or Temporal Flux at all.

Tactics:

It's pretty simple. Put up an Arcane hydra, aim your arcane torrent on the biggest clump of enemies you can see, and watch them melt. If I'm fighting tough monsters I like to pre-teleport to get my decoys up, and it gives me more time to dish out damage. I find that liberal use of teleport keeps the deaths down to a minimum.

Follower:

I prefer the Templar for the tanking, heals, and the small AP regen boost. That said, I'm sure the other followers can be quite helpful as well.

Variants:

Using Calamity instead of Fracture is fun for killing trash mobs. I can get some pretty sick Massacre numbers (50's and 60's), however I still die to elites way often with this variant.

Video:

Please excuse my noobie micro. I run out of AP a lot because my aim is bad and I shoot shielded elites, but usually my runs are a little bit faster.

Conclusion:

If you want to try out a new build that is fun, efficient, and powerful, I suggest giving a whirl. Please feel free to post comments, suggestions, questions.

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A Wizard Viable Build Using Disintegrate

Link to build!

I've always been in love with disintegrate (it's one of the reasons I picked Wiz over DH), but it requires you to stand still. At last, I've played around to find a somewhat viable build using it.

Concept

Passives: Illusionist, Arcane Dynamo, Critical Mass

• Spectral Blades (Deep Cuts): High proc rate restores cooldowns, gives AP, and procs Arcane Dynamo. Since Deep Cuts' DoT can also proc, you only need to hit once or twice, wait a while, and you've built up 5 stacks of AD and taken a few seconds off your cooldowns.
• Disintegrate (Chaos Nexus): AD'd Disintegrate has 271% damage that you can sit and cast. Chaos Nexus' small lasers also have a small chance to proc things (10-20%?) but in close range fire really quickly. With AP on crit, close range, and enough enemies, you can channel Disintegrate for quite a long time.
• FA (Prismatic): Pretty obvious. You want prismatic because you'll actually be taking a few hits with this build (granted it'll often be under a diamond skin)
• Diamond Skin (Crystal): Obvious because you have to tank every once in a while. Also, hits taken while under DS proc illusionist, so going in to melee usually resets your teleport and MI. If you have problems with AP, you could switch this to Prism.
• Mirror Image (Duplicates): CC breaker; this spell pretty much hard-counters most CC affixes. The illusions also help a lot to let you sit and channel Disintegrate without being hit too much.
• Teleport (Safe Passage): Safe Passage is useful in this case because it'll help prevent your DS from breaking. You don't have enough AP to use Wormhole, and Fracture destroys your MI duplicates. Arguably, you could use Fracture and not MI, but Fracture isn't as good of a CC breaker, and has fewer illusions to distract mobs away from you.

Pros

• Does damage at all distances, with low projectile travel time. Also has high upfront damage (no need to build up tornadoes and wait for delayed EB's, waiting for arcane orbs to hit enemies, or waiting for venom hydras to build venom)
• Is very well-rounded against most affixes. Plenty of CC breaks with Illusionist (frozen / jailer). Plenty of teleporting with Illusionist/CM (arcane / vortex). Tanks damage (molten / reflect / plagued / teleport). Disintegrate penetrates (invulnerable / shielding).
• Is decent at running through mobs, as you can tank damage with DS and teleport often with illusionist. MI also provides supple distraction.
• If used correctly, has nice DPS from the AD'd disintegrate.
• Pretty fun / unique if you're tired of kiting with orb/blizz builds or don't want carpal tunnel from WW builds
• Viable with slow weapons

Cons

• Cold Blooded / GC don't really work well with this build.
• Not as simple as kite/WW builds, as you need to concentrate to properly rotate your cooldowns.

Gear

• High AP on crit. Get it on 1 item for 2H, or 2 items for 1H. Necessary for channeling Disintegrate. Alternatively you could look for Disintegrate cost reducing gear.
• High crit %
• High defense, since you can't use FA.
• LoH is very helpful. I run with 1K+.
• Moderate HP (30-35K). Too high and you don't proc Illusionist as often.

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[Wizard] Bored of your melee build? Try out the Wicked Wind build!

Just kidding, I know you aren't bored of your melee build. But if you are, seriously, give Wicked Wind a serious shot. I've been doing the melee wiz for about a month, and only now have I felt an urge to mix things up. I saw a video two days ago of someone doing this, but felt inhibited by the fact that I needed AP on crit to make it work.

So I put my near-perfect Helm of Command on the bench and purchased a Dark Mage's Shade for 100k (as a test-piece) and a source with crit and AP on crit (lowish damage, because I didn't want to spend too much). So with 16 AP on crit, I tried out the build.

Holy, mother of god. Without Helm of Command and a great shield (mine was 24% block, 1500 armor, and tons of good stats), I was definitely much more squishy, but once you get those tornadoes out there, it's game over. I'm not sure if it's life on hit (I have 800) or life steal (I have 2.8%), but unless you are one-shotted, your life is self-healing at an absurdly fast rate. You are generating so many crits that you can actually perma-freeze elite packs. I made my melee wiz build with such ambitions, but even reaching as high as 48% crit and 2.4 APS (before patch), I was never able to do so, and settled with simply stunning them every so often.

But not anymore. I've fought frozen/arcane elites without them ever having placed a single arcane sentry/frozen orb simply because they are frozen the entire time.

Might it get nerfed later on? Possibly. Hopefully not. It's the only use I've seen for Energy Twister, and Blizz likes to encourage build diversity. And before you place those energy twisters down, you're extremely vulnerable (as you'll see, you pretty much have to give up spectral blades for this, so you lack any "instant" attack). But as I said, the style becomes straight-up god mode once you've created your momentum.

Since then, I emptied my 10m gold I've been saving up for a weapon and instead bought a "perfect" Dark Mage's Shade (10 AP on crit, 5% crit chance to explosive blast, etc) and a source which I can see myself using for a while.

Here's the build I'm using right now, but it's not the only variation.

You can swap out short-fuse for chain reaction, because your cooldowns quite literally reset in a fraction of a second. So instead of letting off 3 explosions in 2-3 seconds from chain reaction for 97% weapon damage each, you can constantly emit one powerful one in shortfuse for 225% damage at an equally constant rate.

Venom Hydra is purely there for a DPS supplement. Teleport might be a wiser choice to get out of dangerous elite abilities, but since you can now deploy the Twisters from afar, there isn't as much of a reason to use teleport, imo (which before, I considered it almost an essential skill for melee wizes).

As for explosive blast: there are many skills one might argue should be used instead of this. But this skill is rather unique in that there is no casting animation. You can simply hold down the hotkeys for Explosive blast, diamond skin, and frost nova, while spam clicking energy twisters, and all three of them will "cast when ready." This is pretty huge, since if even one of those skills have a casting animation, it messed up everything as the other two won't cast when ready because your character attempts to "queue" up the casting spell before casting the others.

Anyway, I take no credit for this. I got the idea from this, but I've read about it before as well. I just never trusted it/felt like it was something I'm willing to invest gold into (and thereby give up some pieces of gear which I consider very valuable). But man... it is FUN.

I'm not going to sell my HoC/shield for now, so that I won't get screwed by a nerf-hammer, but the coversion really doesn't need more than 1 mill gold for a source and a Dark Mage's Shade to work (I spent more simply because I don't mind committing).

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