@euggie

Here's a quick hit I did from a previous post:

Posted by Khan at 09/23/2012 03:14 PM

@venoom Good question.

Its essentially the same build for any high end wizard with 3 major exceptions:

1) Life steal. Instead of life on hit, life steal scales better with higher DPS characters. Sure, you can have a life on hit item, no biggie, but to be optimal, use life steal once you're over the 70k dps range. Additionally, the archon beam is similar to the disintegrate beam in that it travels through all monsters allowing you to hit multiple units at once. This exponentially causes more life to be gained, if needed.

2) Arcane Power on Critical Hit (APOC). Not necessary unless you're running a secondary spell that requires it when archon is down/recharging. "If archon is down, warp to town" as some purists would say. Me, I use electrocute/forked lighting while waiting to recharge archon.

3) Movement speed. Archon, unlike any other build the wizard uses, requires victims. Wizard needs food badly and that food is squishy monsters. For every monster killed, archon stays active for an additional second. Therefore, the quicker you can traverse expanses and reach the next pack of victims, the greater chance you will be able to stay in archon form. Some people like to use the teleport rune on archon but I prefer using improved archon for the additional damage and protection.

Thats it. Stack normally as you would with IAS, all resist, vitality, armor, crit chance, and crit damage. The more of all these, of course, the better; no matter what build you're using.

Why use archon? Your armor and resists are increased by 40% and the beam does 300% damage. Given that the majority of archon users have a base damage of 100k, thats a lot of damage. You stack it with arcane dynamo, thats 375% damage. Use Arcane dynamo and improved archon, thats 400% damage...

For clarification, Arcane Dynamo's additional 25% damage stops functioning after the first volley of archon. As soon as you release your mouse button, the beam is at the normal 300% damage or 325% for improved archon.

@euggie APoC can be important depending on what build you want outside of archon. Typical kiting with forked lightning/piercing orb/etc with blizzard or a hydra is one route to go. Other people try to make a CM-freeze build, which would probably get you back into archon the fastest, but you'd have to give up DS or one of the buff skills.

Posted by Khan at 09/28/2012 11:41 AM

@euggie

Here's a quick hit I did from a previous post:

Posted by Khan at 09/23/2012 03:14 PM

@venoom Good question.

Its essentially the same build for any high end wizard with 3 major exceptions:

1) Life steal. Instead of life on hit, life steal scales better with higher DPS characters. Sure, you can have a life on hit item, no biggie, but to be optimal, use life steal once you're over the 70k dps range. Additionally, the archon beam is similar to the disintegrate beam in that it travels through all monsters allowing you to hit multiple units at once. This exponentially causes more life to be gained, if needed.

2) Arcane Power on Critical Hit (APOC). Not necessary unless you're running a secondary spell that requires it when archon is down/recharging. "If archon is down, warp to town" as some purists would say. Me, I use electrocute/forked lighting while waiting to recharge archon.

3) Movement speed. Archon, unlike any other build the wizard uses, requires victims. Wizard needs food badly and that food is squishy monsters. For every monster killed, archon stays active for an additional second. Therefore, the quicker you can traverse expanses and reach the next pack of victims, the greater chance you will be able to stay in archon form. Some people like to use the teleport rune on archon but I prefer using improved archon for the additional damage and protection.

Thats it. Stack normally as you would with IAS, all resist, vitality, armor, crit chance, and crit damage. The more of all these, of course, the better; no matter what build you're using.

Why use archon? Your armor and resists are increased by 40% and the beam does 300% damage. Given that the majority of archon users have a base damage of 100k, thats a lot of damage. You stack it with arcane dynamo, thats 375% damage. Use Arcane dynamo and improved archon, thats 400% damage...

For clarification, Arcane Dynamo's additional 25% damage stops functioning after the first volley of archon. As soon as you release your mouse button, the beam is at the normal 300% damage or 325% for improved archon.

def don't have the right gear to make this work well... maybe a new build will come out that lets me use my existing gear well, and still allow me to have some fun

Posted by sabin at 09/28/2012 04:13 PM

@euggie APoC can be important depending on what build you want outside of archon. Typical kiting with forked lightning/piercing orb/etc with blizzard or a hydra is one route to go. Other people try to make a CM-freeze build, which would probably get you back into archon the fastest, but you'd have to give up DS or one of the buff skills.

thanks... i was using archon for a whlie as my utility from my normal cm build, but i wasn't sure what to do when i went into archon mode... maybe play around with it on ptr since theres no penalty there

@euggie Some CM WZs have even used arcane destruction as a nuke, and cancel archon form right away to get back to freezing. The CD doesn't take too long to reset, and depending on your DPS it can help drop packs really fast. 1600% DPS plus 20% from cold blooded plus 15% from bone chill. I saw some say they liked it more than EB, but I like the consistent damage. It might be good to replace teleport though for a more offensive build. This playstyle would probably work really well with 1.0.5 having 0% CC reduction on the first freeze.

Posted by sabin at 09/28/2012 06:12 PM

@euggie Some CM WZs have even used arcane destruction as a nuke, and cancel archon form right away to get back to freezing. The CD doesn't take too long to reset, and depending on your DPS it can help drop packs really fast. 1600% DPS plus 20% from cold blooded plus 15% from bone chill. I saw some say they liked it more than EB, but I like the consistent damage. It might be good to replace teleport though for a more offensive build. This playstyle would probably work really well with 1.0.5 having 0% CC reduction on the first freeze.

@sabin how do you cancel archon? One of the new runes does like 1600% damage right? that would be a great alternative to EB if you can just cancel archon and get back to frost nova and ET

Posted by shniggies at 09/29/2012 02:11 PM

Posted by sabin at 09/28/2012 06:12 PM

@euggie Some CM WZs have even used arcane destruction as a nuke, and cancel archon form right away to get back to freezing. The CD doesn't take too long to reset, and depending on your DPS it can help drop packs really fast. 1600% DPS plus 20% from cold blooded plus 15% from bone chill. I saw some say they liked it more than EB, but I like the consistent damage. It might be good to replace teleport though for a more offensive build. This playstyle would probably work really well with 1.0.5 having 0% CC reduction on the first freeze.

@sabin how do you cancel archon? One of the new runes does like 1600% damage right? that would be a great alternative to EB if you can just cancel archon and get back to frost nova and ET

You right click on the buff icon. You can do the same with any other skill or whatever like NV too.

hmmm there seems to be a cancel ability... didn't know that

Posted by NightCrawler9 at 09/29/2012 02:16 PM

Posted by shniggies at 09/29/2012 02:11 PM

Posted by sabin at 09/28/2012 06:12 PM

@euggie Some CM WZs have even used arcane destruction as a nuke, and cancel archon form right away to get back to freezing. The CD doesn't take too long to reset, and depending on your DPS it can help drop packs really fast. 1600% DPS plus 20% from cold blooded plus 15% from bone chill. I saw some say they liked it more than EB, but I like the consistent damage. It might be good to replace teleport though for a more offensive build. This playstyle would probably work really well with 1.0.5 having 0% CC reduction on the first freeze.

@sabin how do you cancel archon? One of the new runes does like 1600% damage right? that would be a great alternative to EB if you can just cancel archon and get back to frost nova and ET

You right click on the buff icon. You can do the same with any other skill or whatever like NV too.

yea just did a quick google search... thanks
however, this would take some precision that sometimes i can't afford

Posted by shniggies at 09/29/2012 02:53 PM

Posted by NightCrawler9 at 09/29/2012 02:16 PM

Posted by shniggies at 09/29/2012 02:11 PM

Posted by sabin at 09/28/2012 06:12 PM

@euggie Some CM WZs have even used arcane destruction as a nuke, and cancel archon form right away to get back to freezing. The CD doesn't take too long to reset, and depending on your DPS it can help drop packs really fast. 1600% DPS plus 20% from cold blooded plus 15% from bone chill. I saw some say they liked it more than EB, but I like the consistent damage. It might be good to replace teleport though for a more offensive build. This playstyle would probably work really well with 1.0.5 having 0% CC reduction on the first freeze.

@sabin how do you cancel archon? One of the new runes does like 1600% damage right? that would be a great alternative to EB if you can just cancel archon and get back to frost nova and ET

You right click on the buff icon. You can do the same with any other skill or whatever like NV too.

yea just did a quick google search... thanks
however, this would take some precision that sometimes i can't afford

You have 3 full seconds on the first freeze, should be plenty of time even if you're not fast at getting over to the icon.

At powerlevel 10, i have seen zisss test archon using a very geared wizard gears (he achieved 600k'ish dps) .. it wasn't working out :\
Only viable spec at pwlvl 10 still seem to be cm/nova wiz. with most of the popular nukes.
Although once patch goes live i dont see much ppl farming at pwlvl10..as its not very efficient, unless they are farming for the hellfire ring. (farming that ring at lowerlevel is very frustrating, because of the drop rate)
Blizzard nerfing working specs to try promote build diversity..somehow i dont see its gonna happen. People will always gravitate toward a spec thats effective.

Posted by sabin at 09/29/2012 04:15 PM

Posted by shniggies at 09/29/2012 02:53 PM

Posted by NightCrawler9 at 09/29/2012 02:16 PM

Posted by shniggies at 09/29/2012 02:11 PM

Posted by sabin at 09/28/2012 06:12 PM

@euggie Some CM WZs have even used arcane destruction as a nuke, and cancel archon form right away to get back to freezing. The CD doesn't take too long to reset, and depending on your DPS it can help drop packs really fast. 1600% DPS plus 20% from cold blooded plus 15% from bone chill. I saw some say they liked it more than EB, but I like the consistent damage. It might be good to replace teleport though for a more offensive build. This playstyle would probably work really well with 1.0.5 having 0% CC reduction on the first freeze.

@sabin how do you cancel archon? One of the new runes does like 1600% damage right? that would be a great alternative to EB if you can just cancel archon and get back to frost nova and ET

You right click on the buff icon. You can do the same with any other skill or whatever like NV too.

yea just did a quick google search... thanks
however, this would take some precision that sometimes i can't afford

You have 3 full seconds on the first freeze, should be plenty of time even if you're not fast at getting over to the icon.

i tried the archon nuke... and it works quite well... its great for killing gobs :)
thanks for the info!

@euggie Nice, I'm sure crits are out of control. If you use it a lot you can swap in Arcane Dynamo to really melt packs fast.

Just made it to 190k dps while tinkering with some spare items and using Glass Cannon. Using Arcane Destruction with that DPS melts bosses pretty fast. Hmm...high DPS gear swap for bosses and regular gear for farming...<shrug>

Posted by Khan at 10/09/2012 09:22 PM

Just made it to 190k dps while tinkering with some spare items and using Glass Cannon. Using Arcane Destruction with that DPS melts bosses pretty fast. Hmm...high DPS gear swap for bosses and regular gear for farming...<shrug>

@khan dude thats nuts... can we farm for infernal machine together :) pretty please?

@euggie Of course! MP10 though is not viable for any archon and the official D3 forums today are saying that MP10 monster damage (especially the elemental damage) have been increased. Some really tough CM wizards are getting one shot through their Diamond Skin and Prismatic.

Posted by Khan at 10/10/2012 09:02 AM

@euggie Of course! MP10 though is not viable for any archon and the official D3 forums today are saying that MP10 monster damage (especially the elemental damage) have been increased. Some really tough CM wizards are getting one shot through their Diamond Skin and Prismatic.

sweet! well not being 1 shotted, but that you'll help :)
did mp10 only get this change? Or is it incrementally increased through all the other mps as well?

I want to say it's all the levels. About a week ago I tried monster level 7 and 10 with my barb and was doing alright. Tried it yesterday and I was getting one shot everywhere it seemed.

Posted by NightCrawler9 at 10/10/2012 11:51 AM

I want to say it's all the levels. About a week ago I tried monster level 7 and 10 with my barb and was doing alright. Tried it yesterday and I was getting one shot everywhere it seemed.

that is disheartening... any wiz think of starting another char cuz of all these nerfs? I know i have... seems barbs are the way to go, until the next nerf...

the reason i like my current nova/cm build is that i don't need a tank... when kiting, it was annoying having to run back to the beginning of the map to kill an elite. I started joining public games hoping for a tanky monk or barb, then i found the glory of the cm/ww build and its been great!

im thinking WD since i wouldn't need to buy new gear, just switch my wiz gear to the wd and use the pets to tank? or will this totally suck?

It seems like with just mediocre gear witch doctors and their pets can tank quite well, so I don't think it'd be that bad of an idea to roll one. I've been working on one myself.

Posted by shniggies at 10/10/2012 12:01 PM

Posted by NightCrawler9 at 10/10/2012 11:51 AM

I want to say it's all the levels. About a week ago I tried monster level 7 and 10 with my barb and was doing alright. Tried it yesterday and I was getting one shot everywhere it seemed.

that is disheartening... any wiz think of starting another char cuz of all these nerfs?

A few people on reddit also said there seemed to be a big increase in monster damage (mostly affixes) in high monster power level.

I wouldn't plan on abandoning the WZ just yet. After most of the nerf announcements, there have been people reporting that they can still freeze at a respectable rate on the PTR. Even if we need better gear, you should be able to get much better stats considering the buffs to low level gear from monster power above 0, as well as jewelery rolling lvl 63 affixes.

On the other hand, I'd highly recommend trying out the WD regardless of how 1.0.5 affects WZ. I've leveled all the classes to 60 in SC (and almost all to 60 in HC), and I found WD to be the most interesting to play, personally. With decent eHP, it feels like the pets are practically invulnerable.

Posted by sabin at 10/10/2012 03:49 PM

Posted by shniggies at 10/10/2012 12:01 PM

Posted by NightCrawler9 at 10/10/2012 11:51 AM

I want to say it's all the levels. About a week ago I tried monster level 7 and 10 with my barb and was doing alright. Tried it yesterday and I was getting one shot everywhere it seemed.

that is disheartening... any wiz think of starting another char cuz of all these nerfs?

A few people on reddit also said there seemed to be a big increase in monster damage (mostly affixes) in high monster power level.

I wouldn't plan on abandoning the WZ just yet. After most of the nerf announcements, there have been people reporting that they can still freeze at a respectable rate on the PTR. Even if we need better gear, you should be able to get much better stats considering the buffs to low level gear from monster power above 0, as well as jewelery rolling lvl 63 affixes.

On the other hand, I'd highly recommend trying out the WD regardless of how 1.0.5 affects WZ. I've leveled all the classes to 60 in SC (and almost all to 60 in HC), and I found WD to be the most interesting to play, personally. With decent eHP, it feels like the pets are practically invulnerable.

the thought of grinding a char back to 60 and the plvling turns me off to the idea... but if enough nerfs get handed to wiz, i may entertain this idea....
with the new monster level being applied to all levels, getting from 1-60 should be fairly quick with a friend, no?

@euggie Considering how OP you can be with a flawless square in your weapon, I think even high monster power will be a piece of cake when leveling (especially if you don't mind usin the AH for gear), but I'm guessing MP4-6 will probably be most efficient.

Also, I wouldn't look at it as grinding.. I found leveling to 60 to be way more fun than farming the same areas once I reach inferno. The easy difficulty in normal/NM still lets you progress normally if you experiment with fun builds, rather than focusing purely on efficiency.

Posted by sabin at 10/11/2012 04:55 PM

@euggie Considering how OP you can be with a flawless square in your weapon, I think even high monster power will be a piece of cake when leveling (especially if you don't mind usin the AH for gear), but I'm guessing MP4-6 will probably be most efficient.

Also, I wouldn't look at it as grinding.. I found leveling to 60 to be way more fun than farming the same areas once I reach inferno. The easy difficulty in normal/NM still lets you progress normally if you experiment with fun builds, rather than focusing purely on efficiency.

i'm all about the loot!
back in d2 days, i just wanted to find good gear to be able to pvp the crap out of ppl
but since there is rmah now, might be more difficult... but we'll see :)