[ToRFutureBoy]

Firstly, apologies for not getting to this sooner. Here I will write up all about wizards. From why we have them, what they are capable of, and some of the best "build orders" that some of our best here on SC2SEA.

Introduction

Wizards are renegade spellcasters who use their bodies as vessels for arcane energy, forsaking the more careful path favored by other magic users. They manipulate all manner of forces to disintegrate, burn, and freeze their foes, and they can control time and light to teleport, create powerful illusions, and deflect oncoming attacks.
Wizards grip wands and staves to focus their less potent magics, blasting at their enemies while gathering the energy or time necessary to destroy them in a dazzling hail of arcane might.With few exceptions, wizard attacks are conducted at a distance, away from danger. As living artillery, wizards are well suited to relying on long-range destructive power.

Some comments from me

I am still fairly "young" in the wizard world at around lvl 39, just starting Nightmare mode with a friend. One thing I have already found thoroughly enjoyable is the continued playability. After finishing the game and moving on, I have found new equipment, craft items (and craft and jeweler pages for upgrading), stronger enemies and even some new areas undiscovered (anyone got the staff of herding?).
As for my own build, being fairly noob to it all I may not have the same skills as some of you. I tend to use diamond skin (I'll need to check the rune), meteor (the star rune), energy armour, which I keep on all the time, and archon (Destruction rune).
My primary is arcane orb (arcane orbit), and secondary is disintegrate (chaos nexus). Disintegrate is AWESOME, and I also love the Archon.




SC2SEA Wizard List

dox (h.c)

• tgun
• nirvana
• pinder
• Halstrom
• champi
• hackdz
• reere
• cruxspoon
• rize
• breadfan
• torfutureboy
• Ben
• calcifer19
• sRGRiM
• PanDMonium
• Trinion
• Nemo
• Fadey

Please let me know if there are more to add to this list. Also more to come! Stay tuned.

[nirvAnA]

Sharing some general wizard tips

Diamond Skin - Can be activated anytime, even when stunned. No need for pre-mature usage.

Blizzard with freezing rune - Its a frost nova that can be casted anywhere and more often. Use it!

Resistances

Is this of any use? Need tips here. Snow said he got his resistance to 370 and doesnt die instantly to molten anymore

[breadfan]

Originally Posted by nirvAnA

Resistances

Is this of any use? Need tips here. Snow said he got his resistance to 370 and doesnt die instantly to molten anymore

Yes

Intelligence and armor both give you resistance (and strength too), which is damage reduction. It's about having the right balance of resistance and health pool.

At 60, gear has 4 or 5 stats apiece, so you shouldn't have to "gear for resistance" really - it will just happen as long as you don't try to stack any particular stats.

In saying that, I think that getting +resist all is the fastest way to increase your resistance, because generally, it's in addition to at least some armor/int/str, and the amount you get is generally more than the other stats for an equivalent level item give

[AyuTrex]

I'm a wizard farming between inferno acts but I noticed a quite a lot of them not knowing that as long as you have "+life per kill". Re-cast your hydras(any) to gain back hp. Eg, 1.5k per kill, re-cast hydras to instantly gain back 4.5khp. It works wonders when I'm fighting elite packs which have reflect damage. Also, life per hit is not always 100% for every spell, it is 0% for certain spells such as hydras but 100% for seeking magic missile.

Quick Comments

	breadfan:	sick tip!
	naviC:	OMG U BUG ABUSER

[cruxSpoon]

For those who use wormhole teleport im sure you know of the bug that tp's you back and resets the cd again.

Here is the fix
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5150760169

Basically just stop moving for 1second after the tps

[naviC]

Originally Posted by AyuTrex

I'm a wizard farming between inferno acts but I noticed a quite a lot of them not knowing that as long as you have "+life per kill". Re-cast your hydras(any) to gain back hp. Eg, 1.5k per kill, re-cast hydras to instantly gain back 4.5khp. It works wonders when I'm fighting elite packs which have reflect damage. Also, life per hit is not always 100% for every spell, it is 0% for certain spells such as hydras but 100% for seeking magic missile.

how're you killing those elites so fast lol. for reflect damage i believe +life on hit is better?

add me to the wizard list!

[AyuTrex]

Originally Posted by naviC

how're you killing those elites so fast lol. for reflect damage i believe +life on hit is better?

add me to the wizard list!

I'm not really killing fast or anything because I have at most only average dps compared to everyone else. =/ But I do agree that once you have high enough hp per hit and also using the right skills which give you back between 80-100% of the expected hp, it will definitely be better than per kill as you require other mob kills or AP spamming of hydras. The only problem is that it is hard to reach that optimum hp% per hit, changing of skill build in order to use the specific skills for close to 100% hp per hit. At the same time, if you're casting other skills like hydras(0%) or blizzard(2%), they do not help in hp per hit and also is dealing massive dps while you're casting primary/secondary skills, so it makes recovering hp per hit hard to catch up with the reflect damage you're getting from the elite pack.

For detailed information on life per hit, http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5149154265 . I posted the link instead of copy pasting here because all credits belong to the person himself who made that post there. There have been debates between life leech and life per hit as well, however, it seems that life leech isn't working well in inferno for a lot of people. I'll post more information if I happen to find any more.

Quick Comments

naviC:

server maintainence, i bet they're gonna fix it :(

[naviC]

having the dilemma between using a 2h or 1h + source.. the sources are all ridiculously priced now.

[Ben]

Add me as a Wizard. I play one, and I refuse to play anything else. They're too much fun!

[ToRFutureBoy]

Originally Posted by naviC

having the dilemma between using a 2h or 1h + source.. the sources are all ridiculously priced now.

My Wiz has always been a 1 handed and source. All of the sources I have found as well.

However I think at higher levels a 2 handed might work better. Some others here can probably tell you.

[calcifer19]

my wizard use 1 hand dagger(crappy legendary atm) + source, i do 52k dps with 32000 hp, solo act 1 act 2 act 3 act4 no big problem at all, can tank 3-6 shots from elite

blizz +vemon hydra is good but they kill stuff too slow, i use pure arcane build, orb (tap the source) + arcane hydra + arcan missle(seeker) very good brust damage and slow them with +30% snare effect from ur skill. Attack speed with magic missle ( seeker rune ) is amazing for kiting (kite like marineking and dodge elite line of sight ). ALso Magic missle (seeker) with high attack speed is a must for PVP

the gear i use tal armor(attack speed) tal neck (+6% arcane damage) + stone of jordan (+6% arcane) other item: stack intel, crit, maximum arcane power, increase crit damage , attack speed and crit gain arcane power

hydra also heal if you got life per kill item (its bug i believe) u can spam hydra super fast with alot attack speed, maxium power, instantly regain all hp which make u wizard more tanker than ever

my char code is onsCalcifer#1709 got heaps item for trade

[AxSGRiM]

hi im a wizard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PanDMonium]

I'm a wizard as well. Just started farming inferno, and having to switch out my gear to items with more vitality and intellect. I play on the North American server -

[ToRFutureBoy]

Originally Posted by calcifer19

my wizard use 1 hand dagger(crappy legendary atm) + source, i do 52k dps with 32000 hp, solo act 1 act 2 act 3 act4 no big problem at all, can tank 3-6 shots from elite

blizz +vemon hydra is good but they kill stuff too slow, i use pure arcane build, orb (tap the source) + arcane hydra + arcan missle(seeker) very good brust damage and slow them with +30% snare effect from ur skill. Attack speed with magic missle ( seeker rune ) is amazing for kiting (kite like marineking and dodge elite line of sight ). ALso Magic missle (seeker) with high attack speed is a must for PVP

the gear i use tal armor(attack speed) tal neck (+6% arcane damage) + stone of jordan (+6% arcane) other item: stack intel, crit, maximum arcane power, increase crit damage , attack speed and crit gain arcane power

hydra also heal if you got life per kill item (its bug i believe) u can spam hydra super fast with alot attack speed, maxium power, instantly regain all hp which make u wizard more tanker than ever

my char code is onsCalcifer#1709 got heaps item for trade

Good advice. I assume you must be fairly high levelled though? I just started using hydra again, currently the venom rune, works well for mobs, drop em and run away, and spam bilzz.

[Trinion]

Wizard here!
Started today and just finished act 1 with a friend hehe

[Nemo]

Wizard too and so is my daughter (first real comp game for her). I'm 58 and I begin to bore a bit and she is level 16.
My elder son just begun as DH. God, he's good. City of Tempest have been huge for training his skill. ^^

We play on EU. I have 2 characters on NA for when the server is down.

[Fadey]

Wizard here as well , soloed my way thru everything (including inferno killed diablo last week) , I can say on resistances once I hit 300-350~ Inferno got much easier with DS , 30k hp + force armour I no longer die 1-2 hit. I personally use a 2 hander and arcane orb / venom hydra / blizz still as I only have 38k damage I cant explode stuff so I just kite all day.

[Theend]

I have a lv31 hardcore wizard although it sucks compared to my demon hunter in terms of item,damage,hp....basically everything that is related to diablo 3 .

[nirvAnA]

Some inferno tips

when you hit inferno do the butcher runs maybe 20 times till you're geared a bit then join a friends game and skip act 2 and go straight into act 3. don't bother with act 4, the drops quality increase % isn't that high and not worth it compared to the increased difficulty. do the chest farms & heart of sin quest 2 tower / asmo runs. if you like you can combine it. ice caves L2 at the bridge of korsik has a res chest too. tower map L1 and L2 (50% of the time) can be range abused. chest ramp can be abused *at battle grounds).


To survive act 3 a guideline base is (ty evesnow)

• 18% MS (Movement Speed - 25 is cap)
• 30-35k health
• dps at least 30k but there are some super tanky mages who have beat the game with 20k dps.

I had the hardest time with act 3 getting one shotted when i first started, simply cause my hp was 28k. When it went to 32k and i got MS gear i never had problems again. i still do not have much resistances and i have no problems at all.

Before inferno you can basically wing it and do whatever you want. Just get Int/Vit/IAS gear you can buy a full set extremely cheap. When you hit inferno start to look for crit hit chances / crit hit damage. You also need certain essentials such as

• 1 Hander - You have to be very mobile so two handers just don't do it anymore. Best case is if it has a socket, put a emerald in for the crit hit damage, other gems are all bad for high dps weapons. You wanna make use the best of your fast attack rate so crits or cold dmg (slows enemies) are the best combos.
• Source - The top numbers matter the most. i.e you want something like 80-360 damage. They add the numbers up then average it and add it to your DPS and it has a HUGE impact. Get a cheap blue for < 100k which will last you till you have 5mil and can buy one with +150 int and the ones with crit hit chances are 10mil +
• Teleport - Best defensive spell in the game, absolute necessity
• Movement Speed - Extremely important. 12% MS on boots is a must. innas glory (legs) + lacuni (bracers) are optional and are really overpriced now, and blizzard said they are nerfing IAS so I wouldn't buy them.
• Against ranged units - Fight like a crab, walk horizontally and time it with their attacks to avoid spears / fireballs. You wanna stay as far away as possible and teleport when they get near.

My current specs
switched out my innas glory and tal rasha for higher dps. just farming act 3 over and over again comfortably with a ranged group for the last 2 weeks. my biggest sell was a 10mil barb pants. made most of my money from AH farming too. found several arbitrage opportunities i.e buy stuff cheap then resell them and virtually no risk for 400k-2mil

• 3.4 attacks per second
• current dps 90k. dps with force armor / spark flint 110k.
• I use the the venom rune and arcane hydra instead. apparently venom does more damage over a time period and i use arcane hydra for slow (temporal flux with arcane orbs)

Current build

• celestial orbs (the ones that bounce and go through everything and make it so easy to attack from anywhere)
• arcane orbs (tap the source)
• teleport (fracture)
• hydra (arcane)
• magic weapon (venom)
  
• glass cannon
• prodigy
• temporal flux

how you play it? just kite from a distance and teleport if they get near. spam the arcane orbs that do sick damage which also slow the enemy movement speed along with your arcane hydra. this build has extremely high survivability if played right. ranged units = you just dodge them with good crab micro. there are tons of spots where enemies can be glitched. many bosses can be glitched too. i rmb showing tgun how to glitch zoltun kule when he was powering leveling and he was like "nahh i dont have to glitch him to beat him!" lol anyway sure you can beat them straight up but glitching them makes it so much faster and life easier.

other tips:

• alway carry around a 800+ life on hit weapon in your inventory to deal with reflect damage mobs.
• carry a set of MF gear around with you at all times. cannot stress how important this is. if you dont have an mf set just dont bother farming you're gonna get crap low quality items and it will not be worth you while. you want 280% MF at the very minimum. max is about 315. if you're soloing cast your hydra which will retain your current dps then change to mf when last elite is about to die.
• only blue stuff that sells are GF/MF items and those with abnormally high rolls.
• in groups dye all your MF gear a certain color like pink to signal you have mfed already and the boss can be killed. or use the banner press "g"
• there was this flash of insight combo where your 6th hit archon mode or hydra does 175% damage. used it to farm itsaku extremely easy. don't use it anymore as i did not find it very viable in non boss play.

Quick Comments

	ToRMaverick:	Some of this stuff NEEDS to go into the general tips.
	Nemo:	Awesome !

[EveSnow]

Adding on to nirvana post, due to the incoming IAS nerf, I have been changing up my build to a more critical oriented one. Instead of arcane hydra, Im using venom hydra due to poison dmg per ticks benefiting from critical dmg.

Currently I have 230% critc dmg and 25% critc chance (looking to improve to 43%). Critc is the only way for wizard to dish out absurd amt of dps with lower atk speed. The optimal/reachable new atk speed to reach would be 2.3 atk/sec after the nerf.

Why do i need 40% critc? Because IAS stacks with critc chance and gives you a lot more dmg. 2.3 atk with 43% critc chance gives you at least 5k more dmg than 2.3 atk with 42% critc chance assuming you have high base int. With a higher dmg your venom hydra poison ticker will dish out insane dps! With my current pre-nerfed build, 3.0 atk speed with 25% critc (110k dps), I can kill off an elite with 2 hydras without myself shooting.

The potential for mages dominating will not drop due to this nerf, its just that we have to stack a lot more critc chance in order to play PvE properly in Act III onwards now. So! I urge all the mages now to buy more critc chance equips before they get too expensive.

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	nice!!
	cruxSpoon:	thats what im doing now! tyring to get 2.00 AS, then crit crit crit!
	Nemo:	Awesome too !