Post by Afallingrock on Jan 26, 2014 23:59:49 GMT
ShockNadoShards (SNS), a CM/WW build
Build: us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#VQTYXh!bWg!YZcccc
I. Intro
II. Active Skills
III. Passive Skills
IV. How the build works
V. Wicked Wind and Tickrates
VI. Attribute and Stat Suggestions
VII. Type of gear
VIII. Playstyle and dealing with affixes
Appendices (appear as the first and second comments after the guide)
Appendix A: 100M gearset (AH prices as of first week of April, 2013)
Appendix B: Typical gear setups for 2.73 (and a few for 3.01)
Appendix C: CM/SNS mechanics as explained by Loroese, The Critical Math Wizard
Appendix D: Useful Links
----> Video Version of this guide (NEW!!)
----> youtu.be/c_e8LM7WRR0
Alternate Guides:
Loroese's CM guide: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7350715501
Ultra Budget, TL;DR: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/9628662863
Boozor's video series: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7811541492?page=1
CM Guide, TL;DR: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8891939156#8
Yoda gearing discussion: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/9499691315?page=1
Void's LifeSteal (sword/dagger) discussion (minimum 250-300 DPS to try): us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/10014611394
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I. Intro
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This build represents the basic foundation upon which many CM/WW variants are based on. Like the basic CM/WW build, it uses twisters to restore arcane power and proc CM to reduce cooldowns, and frost nova to freeze enemies. The addition of Diamond Skin, Explosive Blast, and Shocking Aspect was the big leap forward to make the build so popular and powerful. The combination of abilities results in increased survivability, (perma)freezing of enemies, and a large multiplier for DPS. However, since Energy Armor (usually with the Prismatic Armor rune) is not used in this build (unlike traditional CM/WW), a higher degree of damage mitigation (armor and resist all) is required.
The damage multiplier for this build is about 7-8 times your paper DPS against one or two targets (think: Ubers, Gohm, single elite after all whites are toast). It is alot more than that (over 10x+?) against large groups and mobs!! This means if your paper DPS is 85k, you're really doing like 600k or more!!! So when you join a group asking for a freeze wiz to do Uber runs, and they laugh at your DPS (which they did at me last night)...just tell them to wait and see. You'll have 3 new friend requests at the end of night (which I did). The build is really just that good. Hands down awesome. It's one of the few wizard builds (and certainly the most popular) capable of tackling the highest MP’s.
When gearing a SNS wizard, it is crucial to stack CC and IAS on most of your items (see gear section below). General consensus is an attack speed of 2.73 and CC of 50 are a good place to be eventually. Armor and all resist and equally crucial - since you are a tank (and not kiting), you will be spending all of your time right in the middle of the fray...it can sometimes get ugly positioning yourself properly. Gearing defensively is absolutely critical. The last thing to worry about is DPS...the damage multiplier helps to take care of a low sheet DPS number...DO NOT SPEND TIME WORRYING ABOUT DPS WHEN YOU ARE INITIALLY GEARING YOUR SNS WIZARD. Once you can tank and survive then you can begin to add DPS into your gear. Basically, here is the order of importance for gearing: CC=IAS=Armor=All Resist>>>DPS
Which breakpoint to hit? 2.3, 2.5, 2.73, or 3.0??
2.31 - This AS is considered to be extremely suboptimal for this build. The freeze strength is low, LoH return is undesirable, and APOC return will be slow. While you will be able to stack alot of DPS, your survivability will be very low...and it's not alot of fun.
2.5001 - Some people consider this the best (or, at least acceptable) breakpoint for farming (especially with respect to different gearing options). The freeze strength is reasonable as long as you stack over 50CC (which makes the freezing better), and you'll need some extra LoH (maybe 1000) and extra mitigation. Since the freeze isn't as great, the enemies will get off more attacks. You can reach this AS easily with OS or IAS Chant Will, Sloraks's Madness, or even a fast dagger. Lower breakpoints actually result in higher damage multipliers (extra ~1x). Target 55+CC for better freezing and higher damage multipliers (probably an extra ~1x as well).
2.7273 - This is what the guide mostly focuses on as it is considered the "sweet spot" for both gearing, cost, and results. It is capable farming efficiently and is also the entry level breakpoint for doing Ubers. The build really sings and comes to life at this attack speed. By far the most common gearing options include either an IAS or OS Chant Will, though gearing gets much more challenging with an OS setup (requiring 2 extra IAS pieces of armor). This breakpoint is recommended if you have latency of 200 ms or less. If you are at higher breakpoints with high latency then keystrokes for DS and FN are not immediately registered and are wasted....as is all of the gear to get you there.
3.0001 - This breakpoint is great for doing Ubers, but is also great for farming. It allows you to drop some mitigation since LoH returns are increased (about 20% more) and enemies are locked down like statues. Gearing gets really difficult and expensive once you hit 3.01 since nearly every piece of armor needs IAS (especially with an OS Will). However, since IAS increases DPS, this is one way to push DPS to its maximum! This breakpoint is NOT recommended if you have latency around or above 200 ms.
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If you're are sick of reading through text guides (I've tried to not make it a dreaded wall of text!) and would enjoy a visual presentation of the CM and SNS build, check out Boozor's excellent instructional video series. us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7811541492?page=1
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II. Active Skills (this is stright-up, standard, base "SNS"):
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(1) Diamond Skin(DS)/Diamond shards - Adds DPS when refreshed....which is alot
(2) Explosive Blast(EB)/Chain reaction - bulk of the DPS
(3) Frost Nova(FN)/Bone Chill - adds 15% damage (and is a party buff as well)
(4) Storm Armor(SA)/Shocking Aspect - Huge DPS boost, esp w/ large groups of enemies
(LMouse) Energy Twister(ET)/Wicked Wind - procs CM and triggers LoH
(RMouse) Teleport(TP)/Wormhole or Safe Passasge or Fracture. Useful for adjusting position, jumping arcane beams, avoiding explosions, avoiding damage, etc.
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Skill Rune Variations:
- Diamond Skin/Crystal Shell - increased survivability. DPS drops to about 6x. This is probably the first switch you should make if you are dying too often (other than get better gear!)
- Frost Nova/Deep Freeze - +15% to CC after freezing 5 enemies for 4 seconds....which is most of the time when doing fast farming runs. Helps when your CC is low but should not be a permanent solution since it's a big looser though for single elites and ubers. For farming, it can lead to multipliers of 15x for crowds of 5 or more!!
- Frost Nova/Cold Snap - depending on your attack speed and CC, this can be very useful for freezing ubers. With 2.73 AS and 45 CC I freeze Ubers better using cold snap. Can be used as a crutch for ubers if you don't have 3.0 AS or 50+ CC. It does a ridiculous job of freezing ubers at the 3.01 breakpoint. However, your group looses the 15% damage bonus.
- Teleport/Wormhole is a desirable skill for when you desire fast movement for farming and can handle teleporting into the middle of a pack and have the AS/mitigation to survive until the freeze windeup gets going. Teleport/Safe Passage or Fracture is used where the damage reduction or decoys is handy. Also good for playing in slower groups.
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Variations for active skills:
- Magic Weapon/Electrify instead of TP - adds great boost to multiplier for large mobs
- Slow Time/Stretch Time instead or TP - party buff, great for high MP and Ubers etc. Stacks with addt'l Stretch time from another wiz
- Slow Time/Time Warp instead or TP - party buff, great for 20% damage increase. Does not stack with another wiz.
- Meteor instead of TP: Check the Wiz Compendium sticky for these builds.
- Energy Armor instead of Storm Armor - well, then it's not SNS, is it?!! No, it is not...but a close cousin....the DPS modifier drops to about 4.5-5x. This has utility against Ubers when you need the extra damage mitigation at high MP (Prismatic)....or to keep from getting one-shot against Magda's attacks (Force Armor).
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III. Passive Skills:
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Critical Mass - reset cooldowns
Evocation - reset cooldowns
Cold Blooded - adds 20% damage.
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Variations for passive skills:
- Blur, Glass Cannon, Unstable Anomoly, and Conflagration (procs with Fire Walkers and is a party buff) instead of Evo or Cold-Blooded
note: CM is the largest driver of reducing cooldowns. Evocation plays a role also, and is mostly noticeable for one or two targets (example: Ubers). At higher Attack Speeds and CC (55+CC), it may not be completely necessary if you don't mind a "stutter" lock instead of a "freeze" lock. You can try dropping Evo if this is the case.
note: Cold Blooded is great for the DPS buff, but if you are looking for survivability this is what I'd drop first. You'll likely want to keep both CM and Evo for the best possible freeze since this is your first line of defense. I guess you could use cold snap to help the freeze and drop Evo instead of cold-blooded (Bone chill is only +15% damage whereas Cold blooded is +20, so you come out 5% ahead....but Bone Chill is a group buff, and Cold Blooded is not...so keep that in mind).
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IV. How the build works:
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Bind your active skills to the keys noted above (DS=1, EB=2, FN=3, or whatever works for you). Hit 4 to enable SA (and refresh as necessary). Approach a group of monsters and mash the {-123-} keys as quick as you can while holding down your LMouse button (ET) to spam tornadoes. Enjoy the carpel tunnel! Some people use macros on their mouse or keyboards to continuously spam {-123-}. Debate rages as to whether this violates the Blizard TOS agreement. As far as I know, no one has been banned for doing this. I also use [TAB] instead of [SHIFT] to hold my toon in place....it's just more comfortable that way to hit all the keys.
You ought to be able to teleport into the middle of a group and mash away. Sometimes it is useful to throw a few twisters into the fray first (so they begin proc’ing) and then approach or TP into the group. Frost nova keeps the enemies frozen while EB, SA, and DS do the damage. Be sure the place twisters directly on top of enemies….stray twisters are useless. The twisters are proc’ing CM which will quickly reduce the cooldowns. With FN this results in a “perma” freeze of the enemies. This really is a perma freeze for normal white enemies and most elites. It breaks down some with single elites, and even more with ubers. Attack speed plays a large part in how well enemies are frozen (below). The reduced cooldowns result in fresh DS at a rapid pace….restoring the 10,853 hit point shell as well as releasing the 210% shard damage. With EB, the blasts begin to build up and explode at a rapid pace, after the 1.5 second wait. LoH procs with the twisters….and quickly refills you health….which is handy for standing in desecrator pools or poison gas or arcane beams or whatever else the game throws at you.
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V. Wicked Wind Tick Rate, Breakpoints, and Windeup:
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Shandlar/Loroese Breakpoint post: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8704740408?page=1#12
You can read the link above for a more thorough understanding of the nuances of tick rates, procs, and breakpoints. Basically, as your attack speed increases there is a corresponding increase in the tick rate of the twisters….but it is not a linear relationship. There are hard stops, or breakpoints, which you must get past in order to realize the benefits. Higher attack speed = faster twisters, more CM proc’s, faster cooldowns, more LoH, better freezing, etc.
An attack speed of 2.73 is commonly accepted as the optimal balance of gearing (i.e. cost of gear) and freezing (i.e. proc’ing CM). Coming up short of a breakpoint (i.e. 2.72) gives you no advantage over being at the lower breakpoint (i.e. 2.50)…..so don’t waste time, effort, and gold with being in-between breakpoints. Carefully make purchases which put you at or just over the next breakpoint.
As you hit each breakpoint you should observe a noticeable difference in how well the enemies are frozen and how well your life refills. As you increase AS you will also have a more efficient windup, i.e. the time it takes for you to cast your first FN, lay down twisters to proc CM, and cast FN again. At lower attack speeds you may find your FN wearing off before the next one casts….and the enemies can get off some attacks before they are frozen again. This doesn’t happen (as often) as your AS increases.
Breakpoints:
(You must have an attack speed greater than (not equal to) the AS's listed below)
2.3076 - 30 ticks
2.5001 - 33 ticks (colloquially referred to sometimes as the 2.51 breakpoint)
2.7273 - 36 ticks (colloquially referred to sometimes as the 2.73 breakpoint)
3.0001 - 40 ticks (colloquially referred to sometimes as the 3.01 breakpoint)
3.3333 - 45 ticks
i.e. ticks refer to the number of attacks/procs over the 6-second casting period of a single Wicked Wind twister. Thus, going from the 2.5 to 2.73 breakpoint would result in about 10% more ticks...This (through some convoluted math) results in about 20% more LoH, APOC recovery, cooldowns, etc.
Windeup - The refers to the first few (harrowing, but crucial) seconds of an encounter. What we are looking for is the ability to freeze, and keep frozen, and enemy or group of enemies. This works best at high attack speeds (2.73 or more) and crit chance (50%): it maximizes APOC return (to cast more twisters) and CM (to reduce cooldown on Frost Nova. An efficient windeup can also freeze, and keep frozen, single elites....especially at 3.01 AS (think succubusses, shamans, etc). "But Pie, the build works even with lower CC and low AS. You suck." True,....if you survive the first few seconds, then at "full" windup the build can largely work the same at low and high CC & AS (your AP stays full and you keep things frozen)....but how often do you die at the beginning of an encounter...and can you keep 1 or 2 fast elites frozen? And can you stand in a plagued pool with the lower LoH returns? TL;DR....stick to the higher AS and CC recommendations.
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VI. Attributes and Stat Suggestions:
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Here are some milestones to shoot for as you develop your CM/CW wizard. The most difficult task as you begin gearing for mid-level and end-game is damage mitigation....and DPS to a lesser extent. While it is actually rather easy to reach high attack speed and CC, it becomes exceedingly difficult to keep those same stats while adding All Resist and Armor (and DPS). Add it in little by little as the opportunity arises.
Mitigation Calculator:
davidis.me/post/24090618074/diablo-3-damage-resistance-calculator
Mitigation and all other stats:
www.d3up.com
Entry Level
Attack Speed: 2.50 or 2.73
Crit Chance: 45
Armor: 4000
All resist: 600
Total damage reduction (%mit): 85% (or any combination of All res and Armor to get this)
Hit points: 30,000
DPS: 60-80k
Suggested MP: 2-4
LoH: 80 for every 10,000 DPS
18-20 APOC
Gear cost: less than 10M
Mid Level
Attack Speed: 2.73
Crit Chance: 45-50
Armor: 4,500
All resist: 700
Total damage reduction (%mit): 87% (or any combination of All res and Armor to get this)
Hit points: 35,000+
DPS: 80-150K
Suggested MP: 5-7
LoH: 800 to 1,200 for 100,000 DPS
18-20 APOC
Gear cost: between 50M and 500M
Note: This is a very good place to get to; Gearing gets very difficult and expensive after this.
High Level
Attack Speed: 2.73 or 3.01
Crit Chance: 50+
Armor: 4,500
All resist: 850
Total damage reduction (%mit): 89% (or any combination of All res and Armor to get this)
Hit points: 40,000+
DPS: 150K-225k
Suggested MP: 8-10
LoH: 800
18-20 APOC
Gear cost: between 500M-2B
End Game
Attack Speed: 2.73 or 3.01
Crit Chance: 50+
Armor: 4,500
All resist: 850
Total damage reduction (%mit): 89% (or any combination of All res and Armor to get this)
Hit points: 40,000+
DPS: 225k to 400k+ --> It's sick, just sick.
Suggested MP: 10
LoH: 800
18-20 APOC
Gear cost: don't ask. At least a few slots are 1-2B. For top end, each slot if probably 2B+. It is not easy to achieve and should be considered only for the 1%'ers. Or, 1% of the 1%'ers.
* with the 1.07 RD nerf, scaling LoH with DPS isn't necessary. Since increasing amounts of DPS are not reflected back, you just need enough LoH to survive common affixes. Since you no longer need over 1000 LoH, you can focus more on DPS. Enjoy.
Some of these goals may seem somewhat unattainable,….and may be for quite a while as you begin building your wizard. Just start slow, and add IAS, CC, AR, and armor as you get to each breakpoint. Do not be discouraged if you do not reach these frontier stats. It is always advocated to gear towards defense, and add offensive stats later when you are comfortable with the setup. As you increase MP you will need more and more All Resist, Armor, and DPS…..which gets expensive.
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VII. What type of Gear:
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How to think about and calculate your total attack speed:
You will need to be stacking as much IAS and CC as you can….both on the same item when possible. On a 1M budget you can get to about the 2.31 breakpoint and do MP3 or 4!! us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7178978511
The 100M range will get you to the 2.73 breakpoint with pretty good damage mitigation, capable of higher MP's with some squishyness (and usually more deaths than you’d like to admit) but a lack of DPS (takes forever and a day to kill things). It is comfortable for farming at MP5-7. You can spend billions getting the best damage mitigation as possible…..or reaching an AS of 3.00 or 3.33, laughing at each and every enemy the game throws at you. But it’s the most common wizard build (and regardless, one of very few) capable of doing MP10.
** Warning (math ahead!!)
Formula for planning gear purchases:
(desired AS) = (Weapon attacks per second)(X), where X = total IAS needed.
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Example 1: Hitting the 2.73 breakpoint with a 1.63 AS Chantnodo's Will:
2.73 = 1.63x ..... thus, 2.73/1.63 = 1.6748 or, 68% total IAS (round up).
Take 68/"9" = 7.5, round up to 8. Thus, you'd need eight "9" IAS items to reach 2.73
or
Take 68/"8" = 8.5, round up to 9. Thus, you'd need nine "8" IAS items to reach 2.73
or
Playing with the numbers, you could reach exactly 68% with four "9" IAS and four "8" IAS items
** see exception below for Chantnodo's Will.
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Example 2: Hitting the 2.73 breakpoint with 1.73 AS Chantnodo's Will (+.22 ApS/8% IAS) and other items:
2.73 = 1.73x ..... thus, 2.73/1.73= 1.578 or, 58% total IAS (round up).
Already have Lacunis, Chantnodo's Force, rare gloves, and Inna's Temperence for 35 IAS.
Thus, 58-35=23. You'd need 23 IAS from 3 items. ex, 9+9+5, 8+8+7, 9+8+6. in fact, I have a large variety of rings and amulets with a variety of IAS and CC and other affixes (CD, All Resist, damage, INT) depending on the situation (solo (with help from followers), group, ubers, etc).
Note about DPS: don’t concentrate on your sheet DPS to begin with….the SNS multiplier takes care of a low DPS. CD is one of the last things that you should be adding.
Basic Gear Theorycrafting
All of the IAS armor stacking that you will do is based off of the speed of your Chant Will. There are three basic categories that you can gear around. So here's the deal to reach a 2.73 AS:
Fast IAS Chantodo's Will
1.79 AS Will - you will need 5 pieces of 9 IAS and 1 piece of 8 IAS gear (53 total IAS)
1.78 AS Will - you will need 6 pieces of 9 IAS gear (54 total IAS)
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Slow IAS Chantodo's Will
1.77 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (55 total IAS)
1.76 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (55 total IAS)
1.75 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (56 total IAS)
1.74 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (57 total IAS)
1.73 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (58 total IAS)
1.72 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (59 total IAS)
1.71 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (60 total IAS)
1.70 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (61 total IAS)
1.69 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (62 total IAS)
1.68 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear (63 total IAS)
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OS or CD Chantodo's Will
1.65 AS Will - you will need 8 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (66 total IAS)
1.64 AS Will - you will need 8 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (67 total IAS)
1.63 AS Will - you will need 8 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (68 total IAS)
1.62 AS Will - you will need 8 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (69 total IAS)
1.61 AS Will - you will need 8 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (70 total IAS)
You have 10 slots where you can stack IAS. Assuming you are wearing Vial Ward and Blackthorne's Jousting Mail (typical) and add IAS gear as suggested above, that leaves you with:
- Fast IAS Chantodo's Will: two open non-IAS slots
- Slow IAS Chantodo's Will: one open non-IAS slot
- OS or CD Chantodo's Will: no open non-IAS slots
This valuable "open" non-IAS slot can be used in a variety of ways: Rare bracers (for EHP), Amulet (for DPS, etc), gloves (DPS or EHP), or ring (Legendary).
An example of a typical ~100M build is detailed in the first post after the end of this guide.
Here is a link to a thread with gg gear suggestions. Aspire to these goals. I give my own suggestions below as well. us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7593740666
Basic Gear Setup:
The setup requires 2 sources of LoH and 2 sources of APOC. After helping people gear for as long as I have....through this guide as well as ingame, I've come to the conclusion that pretty much any non-GG gear set should go through these 3 items:
Storm Crow for APOC and LoH
Blackthorne's Pants for LoH
Chant Will for APOC (preferably IAS for the speed (perhaps controversial, but that's my opinion))
That also mean a non-APOC force (about 10x+ less expensive than an APOC version). Storm Crow is about 10-100x less expensive than a Mempo.
Using an OS or CD Chant Will requires a trifecta (CC/CD/IAS) ammy (ALOT more expensive than a CC/IAS version) and Lacunis (supporting stats are poor). It can certainly work, and, usually, and maybe ironically, ends up in just about the same place for about the same cost as what an IAS Wand would do for you. Don't discount IAS Wands just because they don't have crit.
So, yeah, Mempo/APOC Force/OS Will wins out in the end...but only when you are approaching 200K DPS and have a billy (or 2 or 10) in the bank. Seriously. Not trying to stifle creativity....this is just the way it works most efficiently.
Common items to increase attack speed include:
Chantnodo’s Will and non-APOC Force: Chant's Will has an incredible base AS as well as the opportunity to roll +IAS, OS, CD, etc. While the OS/CD is nice, it can be much more expensive and harder to gear to 2.73 with. Likewise, a non-APOC Will with Storm Crow gives you the 18-20 APOC you need. If you go APOC Force and Mempo (below) its gets suiper expensive fast. I'd suggest starting with an IAS Chant Will and non-APOC Force. That combo can take you up to and over 200K DPS.
-bad: anything with AS below 1.71 really
-good: 1.72 AS, 1000+ DPS
-better: 1.75 AS, 1150+ DPS
-better: 1.78+ AS, 1000+ DPS
-best: 1.78+ AS, 1100+ DPS
-God-mode: 1.79 AS, 1200+ DPS
[Note: the +IAS is applied to base wand attack speed (1.4) followed by adding the +attacks per second. i.e. the +IAS in this special case is worth slightly less than typical +IAS....and can interfere with the formula above. Plan accordingly.] Chants Force rolls automatically with additional IAS. The +130 INT for the set is certainly welcome.
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Rare gloves: Needs IAS (8-9) and CC (8+). Add in All res, INT, VIT, armor, armor, or CD (in order of importance) when you can afford it. If you have IAS covered elsewhere, then CC, All Res, and CD can be your first options.
- good: 8/9 IAS, 7.5+ CC, 50+ All Res
- better: 8/9 IAS, 8.5+ CC, 50+ All Res, 50+ INT
- best: 8/9 IAS, 9.5+ CC, 50+ All Res, 25+ CD, INT, vit/armor
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Tal Rasha’s Relentless Pursuit: hard to pass up the +IAS here. Solid chest armor since it comes with INT and VIT. Recommendation: Buy some with (at least) alot of armor (since adding All Res is quite expensive).
-good: 8/9 IAS, 750 armor, 150+ INT/50+ VIT
-better: 8/9 IAS, 65+ All Res, 150+ INT, 80+ VIT
-best: 8/9 IAS, 65+ All Res, 650+ armor, high INT and VIT
-best: 8/9 IAS, 150+ INT, Armor or All Res
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Lacuni Prowlers: good place for +IAS, bad place for all other stats, for the cost. Adding Resist All, armor, INT, CC (which is critical to the build) or anything else is very expensive, especially when starting out on a budget. Rare bracers (crafted with 200+ INT) with 5.0+ CC and good defensive stats (all resist, armor, probably VIT) are really optimal here. You can choose to use Lacuni’s, but your damage mitigation will certainly suffer, and probably isn't worth it.
-bad: 8/9 IAS, 3.0 CC, no other stats
-good: 8/9 IAS, 3.5 CC, 450+ armor
-better: 8/9 IAS, 4.0 CC, 50+ All Res
-best: 8/9 IAS, 5.0+ CC, 50+ All Res, INT, VIT, and or Armor (good luck) . Recommendation: If you do go this route...make sure they at least have some +CC and armor.
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Witching hour: expensive, but good source of IAS and CD. Even a cheap one is good: IAS and CD rolls where you can't get either in a rare. One of the last basic items to add (simply because if its cost for a "better" one).
-good: 8/9 IAS, single resist, >40 CD.
-better: 8/9 IAS, 50+ All Res
-best: 8/9 IAS, 50+ All Res, and armor, vit, or extra INT roll.
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Inna’s Temperence: One option for pants. Has IAS, MS, and open sockets. Not usually seen as the first choice for reaching 2.73, maybe because it's too tempting to have LoH/VIT/%life found in the Blackthorne's Pants (below).
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Rings: should try to max out IAS (8 or 9) and CC (at least 4). Other stats are an afterthought in the beginning. As you upgrade look for +damage, VIT, AR, INT, CD, etc.
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Amulet: There are alot of options here, depending on your setup: Typically (if you already have 800 LoH from Storm Crow and Blackthorne's pants), I try to max out CC (9 +) and CD (90+.....just because this is the only piece of armor where you can roll up to 100 CD). This is not the place for IAS/CC/CD trifecta (to begin with).....there are too many other things that you want the flexibility to stick here to round out your build: All Res, Armor, +min/max, VIT, INT, etc. Trifecta is expensive and reduces selection. This is also a common place to add LoH if you are running with Mempo and APOC Force). It’s cheaper and you can get more of it here than on a ring (even all 800+ if you want!). Upgrade to one with more INT or AR or damage.
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Slorak's Madness (w/+CC to ET): This is an alternate wand which rolls with CD and IAS, but no additional attacks per second like Chant's Will does. It is great for damage and twister crits. Its pretty impossible to get to the 2.73 breakpoint, but with your CC and twister crit your total crit can be over 65....and can feel like the 2.73 breakpoint. The OS gives a nice DPS boost too.
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Andariel's Visage: While a little off the beaten path, this helm does come standard with 8-9 IAS and 4.5 CC.....but I've really never seen a CM wiz use one. It has no LoH, you take extra fire damage, and since it's a non-APOC helm, you'll need APOC on your offhand. And if you can afford a good APOC offhand, you can probably afford a CC Mempo. If you switch from a non APOC Chant's Force to another APOC offhand (Oculus or Tal Rasha's Glare) then you lose your +130 INT Chant's set bonus. See where I'm going with this? You can think about it.....just not for very long.
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Tasker and Theo: Great gloves for starting CM's. They come with IAS, OS, armor, up to 50 of each of the 4 stats, and 2 random properties....one of which you will use for CC. The other one could be All Res, double VIT (cheap!) or INT roll, or CD). All Res and CD tend to increase the price quite a bit. Can't beat them for mitigation! Once you have enough armor elsewhere, you can move on to rare gloves with no armor (where you can more easily go trifecta with All Res or whatever you happen to need).
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Common items to increase Armor and All Resist:
Zunimassa's Marrow & Pox (or boots): Actually, a great starting set for CM. Chest comes with All Res and can get armor, INT, and VIT rolls that are ALOT higher than anything you could afford with a Tal's Chest. It just means you need to have IAS on another one of your armor pieces (IAS ammy or Lacuni). The ring will have to be IAS with other supporting stats - and includes a 130 INT bonus.
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Vile Ward: Comes with high armor and high all resist. While adding VIT and % life are nice, consider also adding STR. Remember that STR=Armor. The better your defenses are the less you'll be dipping into your life pool
-good: 180+ INT, 100+ STR, 75+ All Res
-better: 180+ INT, 100+ STR, 70+ VIT, 75+ All Res
-better: 180+ INT, 150+ STR, 75+ All Res
-best: 230+ INT, 150+ STR, 75+ VIT, 75+ All Res
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Ice Climbers: Comes with high Resist All, %life, and OS. Look for one with high INT and Armor/STR or VIT. Great place to increase both EHP and DPS
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Blackthorne’s Jousting Mail: Great source of LoH, VIT, and %life. You generally pick up two LoH items with about 400 each...this is one good place to get some. Recommendation: No IAS here, but you should add at least some Armor and/or All Resist.
-good: 700+ armor, 65 All res, 350 LoH
-better: 700+ armor, 70 All res, 450 LoH
-best: 70 All Res, 250 VIT or 90 INT
-best: 2OS, AR or INT/VIT
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Storm Crow: great helm with APOC and LoH. Can get ones with 3-4.5 CC dirt cheap. Problem is that it can only roll one of these stats: All Res, CC, OS, or double INT roll. Good supporting stats as well, ~100 of each main stat.
-passable: 400+ armor, 425+ LoH, 70+ All Res
-good: 400+ armor, 400+ LoH, 4 CC
-better: 400+ armor, 400+ LoH, 5.5 CC
* if you go with the All Res option, as I do, really try to max out all the stats. Since its not contributing to CC, you better make it worthwhile for armor, All Res, and LoH.
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Rings and Amulet: These should first be stacked with appropriate IAS and/or CC. After that, this can be a budget place to add in Armor and All Resist. As you gear up, and can afford to stack more All Res and armor on your......armor.......(WH, Tal's Chest, BT pants, Boots, bracers/gloves) then you can replace those mitigation stats with DPS (INT, CD, min/max, etc). This is where end-game gearing gets really challenging.
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Natalya’s Reflection & Natalya's Bloody Footprints: This ring and boot set gets you +7 CC bonus, essentially netting a +8/9 IAS & 7 CC ring. Find a ring with Resist All, INT, or VIT for starters. The boots is a perfect place to add VIT (though expensive) since they have little contribution to DPS. This is also an easy place to add DEX (up to 200). Buying a ring that has CC (and INT, etc) is expensive and clearly an end game buy - but has the possibility to really jack up that stat.
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Advanced and End Game Items include:
Litany Ring: The ring is great on many levels (high INT, AR, 4.5CC) and with IAS is great for a CM Wiz. What really separates this ring from other is the -elite reduction. This essentially acst as a little less than 1% mit (or 50-80 more AR (depending on alot of things, math mostly!)) and can be huge for survivability at higher MP's, for doing ubers, or as a substitution for a big chunk of AR elsewhere.
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Mempo of Twilight and Chantnodo’s Force with APOC: These generally go hand in hand. With APOC on the off-hand you can get a Mempo (a non-APOC helm), which has high INT as well as %life, All Resist, and an OS. Enough gold can buy you one with CC. Since Mepho is also a source of IAS, this allows you more flexibility in getting to an AS of 3.00 or itemization possibilities in general.
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Chantnodo’s Will with OS or CD: Pricy, but a common way to obtain the highest DPS’s. With an OS you lose IAS. Plan accordingly.
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Zuni Chest/Pox/Trail: These can clearly be end-game pieces as well as low/mid pieces. Since there is no IAS on the chest, the two random rolls can be used to make a monster All Res/INT/VIT/Armor piece. The two set can be completed with a ring or boots. Boots and ring though can be another option. The "TriPox" clearly rocks as a trifecta (and is end-game), but can only roll 32-34CD. Zuni Trail needs both random rolls for Armor and All Res (unless you're after something else)...but the 7-8 poison damage is clearly a big deal.
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Ice Climbers and rare ring: Ice Climbers can clearly be end game if you have plenty of CC elsewhere. The advantage of Zuni set is 130 Intel and 7-8% poison, but you are limited to TriPox, which is expensive and has a CD cap of 34. Ice Climbers can roll 300+ Intel, so if you have 80 Intel Trifecta Ring, set bonus advantage from Zuni is eliminated. The 8% Poison then can be made up by a higher CD roll or simply higher IAS/CC combination with decent CD roll. The Ice Climbers also have higher Life and/or Armor and Rare Rings are "cheaper" (compare to those godly TriPox). .
Legendary Ammy’s: Blackthorn’s Duncraig Cross and Tal Rasha’s Allegiance. Also Blackthorn Medal (legacy) and Ouroboros to a lesser extent (max IAS and CC are 7). Each have different combinations of LoH, CC, IAS, and CD. Set bonuses can be nice too. Great for maxing out stats for DPS, but usually expensive to get with both IAS and CC (especially Tal Rasha’s). Great to chase when you have the gold and/or room to play within IAS and CC goals. The Duncraig cross (in my opinion) really only works in an end game setting with Mempo and APOC Chant Will. You don't need it for LoH if you are using Blackthorne pants and Storm Crow (which already give you all the LoH that you need). If you get one with CC, then you are dumping a slot where I'd suggest maxing CD. If you max CD, then you are dumping CC (on one of the few slots that can roll up to 10...and you'll never hit 45+ CC). And if you can afford a tri-Cross (IAS, CC, and CD) then it'll work great....but they are quite rare and extremely expensive.
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VIII. Playstyle and dealing with affixes
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When approaching a group of monsters you can either teleport into the middle of them or approach them slowly and begin to freeze. You need to have good armor and all resist so you can take some pain.....before you bring the pain! Typically when playing solo I use teleport....it just increases survivability. It works well for teleporting away from explosions, jumping over arcane beams, and tracking down enemies that are kiting you.
Position adjustment with this build is key. You might think that you just teleport into the middle of a pack, freeze, kill them, rinse, and repeat. It's not that easy. You'll want to adjust your position and find a happy place as quickly as you can. If not, you have to move away a bit....and you might miss an attack (freeze) turn and that may give the monster a chance to attack (physical, or launch more arcane, desecrate, etc). If you can handle standing in the pain and not adjust (high armor and all resist), then you'll keep them frozen better and kill them faster.
Each encounter should be something like this:
a) teleport into the middle of a group
b) mash {-13-} (i.e. FN & DS) while holding down [LMouse] to lay down tornadoes.
c) quickly reposition while still mashing {-13-}
d) mash {-123-} (i.e. FN, DS, and EB) while holding down [LMouse] still
---repeat until done
I usually try to hold off on casting EB for a few seconds. Since it costs AP, it's taking away from casting tornadoes for the first few seconds. It's more important to get as many tornadoes proc'cing and recovering AP as you can before you start casting alot of AP spenders. Once you have alot of tornadoes proc'cing then start casting EB as fast as you can. Depending on the situation (i.e. elite affix, large hoard) it can be invaluable to cast a few tornadoes first, so you get them proc'ing ahead of time....this can help get some enemies under control easier (phase beasts, other fast enemies, etc.
Trash enemies are a great benefit if you use them properly. If you are having a tough time with a group of elites (teleporter, fast, succubusses, any single elite, etc) and can't freeze them because you are always low on AP, try to drag them to a group of trash enemies. Once you drop a few tornadoes on the trash enemies you'll be proc'cing a ton of AP and should help freeze them down. This trick is to not kill the trash enemies too quickly!! If you're playing in a group, be sure to tell your fellow friends to leave the trash enemies alone (you need them to proc!!) and focus on the elites.
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There are some differences in playstyles that you can use depending on the situation that you are in:
Playing solo: At low MP I use wormhole, since you can hold down the teleport button and teleport 4 times. It allows you to move through a map quickly....especially when you're killing monsters quickly as well. At high MP I use safe passage for survivability (you could also use fracture). Since killing enemies is the big time sink here, moving through the map quickly with wormhole doesn't yield a huge time savings. The survivability is also important because the last thing you want to do is die in the middle of a map and have to retrace your steps,...which is a waste. You CAN use wormhole at high MP, it just hurts alot when you "accidentally" teleport into the middle of a hoard of monsters....you need to have alot of armor/resists and high CC to get the freeze windup going - its not for the faint of heart.
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Playing in groups: Alot of it depends on the group and is the same for playing solo. The exception is usually at high MP. Since monster health is so much higher, and you have a group to distract monsters - I tend to use Magic Weapon/Electrify instead of teleport. It has some exponential twister multiplier that deals more damage than traditional SNS alone when facing large groups of enemies (>3). Since the monsters sick around longer in high MP (MP 8-10) this can be a big time saver.
Playing with another CM/WW wiz: Wow. This opens the door for all sorts of variations. Since two wizards together can freeze better an one on their own you can actually dumb down your freezing ability a bit and the combination is still awesome for freezing. Maybe you use firewalker boots and Conflag instead of evocation for the extra 10% damage. Maybe you use a Meteor build and Conflag instead of evocation for extra DPS. You could probably (though I've never tried it) drop down to the 2.5 breakpoint and stack alot of CD and INT for extra damage. Also, since bone chill does not stack, just one wiz needs to use it...the one with the highest DPS can use Deep Freeze instead. It basically lets you break out of the strict SNS build and have a little different type of fun. Just remember....don't let the other CM wiz hang out to dry...you still need to be in there freezing as well!
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Ubers: the WW/CM guide has a good section at the end with how to deal with Ubers
us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7350715501
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Affixes. Here are some of the affixes that you most need to be worried about and some strategies to tackle them:
- Plagued: standing in the middle of a pool just takes high enough Res All, armor, and/or LoH. If you can't do it....gear up. This is now one of the tougher pools that you have to stand in...worse the desecrator.
- Desecrator: Maybe its just me, but it's never a good idea to stand in a desecrator pool, though its a little easier than standing in plagued. High mitigation gives you a much larger window to readjust your positioning, and find a happier place.
- Molten: Watch out for the explosion afterwards.....its pretty much insta-death. If you can survive a molton blast then you're doing really well for that MP level.
- Arcane: Standing toward the center of an arcane beam is never advisable....but its doable in the middle of the beam, and out toward the end should never be a problem. Try to stay put and survive the beam if you can. If you're going to take two hits (back to back (scissor style), from two beams) just be sure that your LoH refills before the second one hits.
- Eletrified: Pretty tough to stand in the middle of a pack where you're getting electrified by everyone. Also, standing on top of an electrified deals ALOT more damage than standing a little farther away. I find it best to stand where you can take it from two of them, and let the rest come close enough to get frozen, but not electrify you....then deal with the rest when the first two are dead. Learn to recognize electrify before you teleport into the middle of them....its insta-death if you're not geared well enough.
- Fire Chains: Similar to electrified. Getting into the middle of all the chains is near insta-death, even if well geared. Try to freeze two if you can, and hope the third one come near enough to freeze. Staying against a wall usually works well too, or up against a door frame - since you can't get surrounded on all sides. In the middle of a field is the worst place to encounter this affix.
- Frozen: hopefully you have teleport. Enough said.
- Jailed: hopefully you have teleport. Actually, this usually isn't that bad. You can continue your attacks afterward without missing too much. Or teleport out.
- Knockback: extremely annoying, since it pushes you away (and the monsters follow) from your tornadoes which are proc'cing all your abilities. The best strategy is to teleport back to the same area you left ASAP. Since its a quick attack, you can usually get back there before the enemies unfreeze and move too far....and you still get a few seconds (and procs) out of the tornadoes. Wait too long, and you're starting all over again.
- Nightmare: similar to knockback. Since you're nightmared for several seconds its likely the monsters have unfroze and moved from the tornadoes. Too bad.
Reflect Damage: Since the 1.07 nerf this affix isn't that big of a problem. The RD works for the first few seconds, but after frozen the reflect shields turn off. Also, meteors could be a problem since they deliver a single large amount of damage vs. standard SNS, which it more gradual damage.
- Vortex: could actually be a good thing! It depends on what the other affixes are. Be prepared to move or teleport away if you need to.
- Shielding: Adjust your positioning so that you're attacking several monsters that are not shielded. If and when the shielding moves to one that you were freezing, the move so you're freezing several again.
- Waller: This is tough because your tornadoes cannot cast on the other side of a wall. You'll have to re-position yourself so you are on the same side of the wall with the monsters.
Teleporter: any slight break in freezing gives them a chance to teleport away. This usually happens when you are down to just the elites (i.e. not enough proc's). Try to move then into some trash enemies so you can get more proc's....and freeze them better. Otherwise you'll just have to chase them down.
Appendix A: Example of a 100M gearset
Here's an example of a freshly rolled ~10 paragon wiz. This ought to be a decent model to gear by for about a 100M budget and getting very nice mitigation at 2.73. There are plenty of other variations, this is just a common one that I suggest.
(gear and cost are actual examples found on the AH on July 27th, 2013)
StormCrow: 400 armor, 4.5 CC, 442 LoH (990k)
Vile Ward: 184 STR, 235 INT, 99 VIT, 626 armor, 72 AR (cost: 5M)
Tal's Chest: 324 INT (inc 3 gems), 138 VIT, 690 Armor, 8 IAS (cost: 5M)
Tasker and Theo: 7.5 CC, 8 IAS, 124 VIT, 179 INT (inc gem), 599 armor (cost: 3M)
Witching Hour: 71 AR, 35 CD, 8 IAS, 289 Armor (3M)
Ammy: (rare) 9 IAS, 7.5 CC, 70 AR, +30 max, 45 VIT, 112 INT (10M)
Bracers: (rare) 465 Armor, 78 AR, 6 CC, 97 VIT, 88 INT (6M)
Blackthorne's Jousting Mail: 709 Armor, 58 AR, 10% life, 471 LoH (cost: 18M)
Ring: (rare): 7 IAS, 4 CC, 135 INT (OS + gem), 68 AR, 4% life (cost: 5.7M)
Nat's Ring: 8 IAS, 97I, 70 AR, 28 max (cost: 8M)
Nat's Boots: 602 Armor, 70 INT, 165 DEX, 78 AR (2M)
Chant Will: 1132 DPS, 1.74 AS, 189 INT (15M)
Chant Force: 254 Avg Damage, 9 IAS, 9.5 CC, 188 INT, 151 STR (7.5M)
This should get you to something like:
Armor: 5031
AR: 786
DPS: 90k
CC: 50.5
AS: 2.74
Health: 34.4k
LoH: 893
EHP: 313k (Kieble)
Cost: Was shooting for 100M, but actually spent 89M)
ALTERNATIVE:
Ammy: trifecta with CD, but no INT/VIT/AR. Less EHP, more DPS
Rare ring and Ice climbers: probably more EHP and DPS, but less CC
Lacunis and non-IAS ammy (with CD): more DPS but less EHP
Future Upgrades:
- 1.78 or 1.79 Chant Will....then you can drop IAS from Ammy
- OS Chant Will....but you'd need to add lacunis
- faster Chant Will, but less than 1.78. Could then get right ring and ammy with less IAS...and more of other affixes (i.e. more options)
Appendix B: Typical gear setups for 2.73 (and a few for 3.01)
(please proofread...I just recently put this together. If there are mistakes, or think there are mistakes, or have questions....please post in the comments. Thanks!!)
Typical Gear Setups:
Setup A: 2.73 with Storm Crow, "Slow" IAS Chant Will, Zuni Chest, and 7 IAS gear pieces.
(suggested for any build, really, beginner to advanced)
- Extremely common beginner setup. Easy to gear, inexpensive, and very forgiving. Zuni chest adds easy EHP, DPS suffers.
* Chant Will with 1.68-1.77 AS and non-APOC Chant Force (Will and Storm Crow provide the 2 sources of APOC)
* Storm Crow and Blackthorne Pants (provide the 800+ LoH needed)
* Zuni Chest - provides AR, and easy to stack Armor/INT/VIT at a low cost
* Remaining IAS items are gloves, Nat's ring, Zuni Pox (below), Witching Hour, ammy, and Lacuni
* Zuni Pox for the 130 INT bonus. Must use the IAS version. Adding CC much later will be difficult (TriPox)
* Nat's Boots for the 7CC Set bonus
* Witching Hour, of course.
Setup B: 2.73 with Storm Crow, "slow" IAS Chant Will, Tal's Chest, and 7 IAS gear pieces.
(can be tough for a starter build)
- Extremely common beginner setup. Easy to gear, inexpensive, and very forgiving. Tal chest adds easy DPS, EHP suffers.
* Chant Will with 1.68-1.77 AS and non-APOC Chant Force (Will and Storm Crow provide the 2 sources of APOC)
* Storm Crow and Blackthorne Pants (provide the 800+ LoH needed)
* Tal's Chest - provides IAS, but difficult to stack AR/Armor/INT/VIT at a low cost
* Remaining IAS items are gloves, rare ring, Nat's ring, Witching Hour and
a) IAS ammy and rare bracers: rare or crafted bracers can be gg and BIS vs Lacunis. Means a trifecta ammy if you want CD
-or-
b) non-IAS ammy and Lacuni: CC/CD Ammy is great, but you're suck with Lacuni's...which are the (stat) killers of budget builds
* Nat's Boots for the 7CC Set bonus
* Witching Hour, of course.
Setup C: 2.73 with Storm Crow, "fast" IAS Chant Will, and 6 IAS gear pieces.
(suggested for an intermediate/advanced build)
* This setup is the same as A&B, but necessitates 9 IAS on only six items with a 1.78 Chant Will (or five 9 IAS and one 8 IAS items with a 1.79 Will)
* The cost can be steep for 9 IAS items and the "fast" Will, but it allows you to use one less IAS piece, typically:
a) rare/crafted bracers and non-IAS ammy if using Tal's Chest
-or-
b) non-IAS ammy and Zuni Chest if using Zuni Chest
Setup D: 2.73 with Storm Crow, OS (or CD) Chant Will, and 8 IAS gear pieces.
(suggested for an intermediate/advanced build)
* This setup is difficult/expensive to do since nearly every piece of armor needs IAS, but can lead to higher DPS overall
* The 8 pieces of IAS gear typically are: Nat's ring, gloves, Tal's Chest, WH, Ammy, Lacunis, rare ring, and Chant Force.
Setup E: 2.73 with Mempo and APOC Force (as above, but with one less IAS gear piece)
* This setup is an advanced setup simply becaue of the cost of the items involved. APOC Forces and CC Mempos are premium items, and are very expensive. If you buy a budget Chant Will (low avg damage) you will be sacrificing alot of DPS and if you buy a non-CC Mempo you will be stuck with low(er) CC. Be aware and plan accordingly
* The setup is bacically the same as A-D with the following exceptions
a) with no LoH from the Storm Crow you will have to pick up ~400 on an ammy or ring.
b) since Mempo has IAS you can drop IAS from one of your other items
note: since Mempo has OS, CC, AR, and up to 200 INT it is really GG/BIS. With Storm Crow you only get one of these. But CC will cost you alot.
Setup F: 3.01 with Storm Crow, "slow" IAS Chant Will, Tal's Chest, and 8 IAS gear pieces.
(suggested for an intermediate/advanced build)
* pretty much the same setup as Setup B, but using at least a 1.75 Chant Will and eight 9 IAS pieces (ring, gloves, chest, belt, source, ring bracers, ammy)
Setup G: 3.01 with Storm Crow, "fast" IAS Chant Will, Tal's Chest, and (still) 8 IAS gear pieces
(suggested for an intermediate/advanced build)
* If you have a "fast" Will, its allows you to use six 9 IAS pices to hit the 2.73 breakpoint, but adding 15 additional IAS will get you to the 3.01 breakpoint. Obviously, a 1.79 Chant WIll gives you on extra IAS point to play with in your gear (versus a 1.78 Will).
Setup H: 3.01 with Mempo, APOC Force, OS/CD Chant Will, and 10 IAS pieces
(suggested for an advanced build)
* not recommended for the faint at heart.
* No much to descrive here....10 IAS pieces (everywhere but boots and shoulders)
* requires trifecta and quadfecta's on rings, ammy, and gloves to work well (esp at higher DPS).
***** If you have sufficient mitigation already, Inna's pants can be substituted for any other IAS piece. Since it only has one random roll you typically have to choose between AR, armor, INT, or VIT. Unless you find a split INT/VIT or VIT/VIT roll, something like that.
Appendix C: Math Wizardry
submitted by Loroese, The Critical Math Wizard
Definitions
Damage tics: WW deals damage approximately 15 times per second, based on SA procs. Each damage tic can crit and each crit can proc CM and SA. SA and CM seem to use this same mechanic though the exact number of tics per second is unknown and might change depending on attack speed. 15 tics is based on 2.5 APS experiments (shocking aspect proc/cm procs happen more frequently than they are supposed to be happening, an unsolved mystery of sorts.).
LoH tics: LoH tics at intervals and the amount of LoH gained at any given interval is hard to predict. Over the coarse of the entire cast the amount of LoH gained is determined by the breakpoint with each LoH tic being equal to your LoH value multiplied by the spell coefficient. APoC seems to use LoH tics to determine how much AP is returned.
Displayed Damage Tics: Damage is displayed no faster than every 0.5s for WW, regardless of the number of LoH or damage tics that occur. The displayed damage is the sum of damage done over that interval. The damage can include crits but because it is the sum of multiple damage tics it will never display as a crit (i.e., text will never be yellow).
CM/SNS Mechanics and calculations
Now to break down how all that comes together. If you have 2.73 APS, let's say you cast FN once per second to keep your freeze going. That means you cast WW at a rate of 1.73 per second (2.73 - 1). They last 6s so on average you have 1.73*6 = 10.38 twisters active at a time. Each twister has 6 LoH tics per second on average and the spell coefficient is 1/8 so you gain 6/8 of your LoH per twister or about 7.8x your LoH back as life from the WW per second. When you account for FN+DS+EB it ends up being closer to 9x. If we assume 15 damage tics per second, then we expect about 155.7 damage tics per second at full windup for WW. If you have 50% crit, and using the spell coefficient that means about 77.9 crits per second and about 9.7 CM and SA procs per second (77.9*0.125=9.7).
Appendix D: Useful Links
Links:
CM Simulator
d3cmww.com
DPS Test:
us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7004691927
Mechanics And Game Information Compendium
us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8770117237
Crafting - List of affixes that can roll, and probabilities:
www.reddit.com/r/Diablo3Strategy/comments/17qxiu/crafting_107_crafting_probabilities
Crafting - Guide:
diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-3-crafting-strategy-the-new-archon-items
Crafting - Probabilities:
www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/18cekp/107_crafting_explained_approximate_chance_of/
Followers: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8569307848?page=1
Experience Calculator: d3xp.weebly.com/
Best EXP Routes: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8796351234?page=1
How to calculate EXP: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/9793089612#1
Best paragon leveling: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/10307820683
ROS Paragon calculator: diablo3xp.com/
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Other:
Well...part 2 is complete! After Void and Novice bumped/trolled it to the end, Void closed it out with reply number 500.
Part one: 11/26 - 3/12
about 14 weeks it was open
17,943 views
Part two: 3/13 - 4/30
about 6 weeks it was open
4,195 views
(part one gets some double billing, since that's where the wiz compendium links to....and then you can follow the link to part 2)
Build: us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#VQTYXh!bWg!YZcccc
I. Intro
II. Active Skills
III. Passive Skills
IV. How the build works
V. Wicked Wind and Tickrates
VI. Attribute and Stat Suggestions
VII. Type of gear
VIII. Playstyle and dealing with affixes
Appendices (appear as the first and second comments after the guide)
Appendix A: 100M gearset (AH prices as of first week of April, 2013)
Appendix B: Typical gear setups for 2.73 (and a few for 3.01)
Appendix C: CM/SNS mechanics as explained by Loroese, The Critical Math Wizard
Appendix D: Useful Links
----> Video Version of this guide (NEW!!)
----> youtu.be/c_e8LM7WRR0
Alternate Guides:
Loroese's CM guide: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7350715501
Ultra Budget, TL;DR: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/9628662863
Boozor's video series: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7811541492?page=1
CM Guide, TL;DR: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8891939156#8
Yoda gearing discussion: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/9499691315?page=1
Void's LifeSteal (sword/dagger) discussion (minimum 250-300 DPS to try): us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/10014611394
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I. Intro
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This build represents the basic foundation upon which many CM/WW variants are based on. Like the basic CM/WW build, it uses twisters to restore arcane power and proc CM to reduce cooldowns, and frost nova to freeze enemies. The addition of Diamond Skin, Explosive Blast, and Shocking Aspect was the big leap forward to make the build so popular and powerful. The combination of abilities results in increased survivability, (perma)freezing of enemies, and a large multiplier for DPS. However, since Energy Armor (usually with the Prismatic Armor rune) is not used in this build (unlike traditional CM/WW), a higher degree of damage mitigation (armor and resist all) is required.
The damage multiplier for this build is about 7-8 times your paper DPS against one or two targets (think: Ubers, Gohm, single elite after all whites are toast). It is alot more than that (over 10x+?) against large groups and mobs!! This means if your paper DPS is 85k, you're really doing like 600k or more!!! So when you join a group asking for a freeze wiz to do Uber runs, and they laugh at your DPS (which they did at me last night)...just tell them to wait and see. You'll have 3 new friend requests at the end of night (which I did). The build is really just that good. Hands down awesome. It's one of the few wizard builds (and certainly the most popular) capable of tackling the highest MP’s.
When gearing a SNS wizard, it is crucial to stack CC and IAS on most of your items (see gear section below). General consensus is an attack speed of 2.73 and CC of 50 are a good place to be eventually. Armor and all resist and equally crucial - since you are a tank (and not kiting), you will be spending all of your time right in the middle of the fray...it can sometimes get ugly positioning yourself properly. Gearing defensively is absolutely critical. The last thing to worry about is DPS...the damage multiplier helps to take care of a low sheet DPS number...DO NOT SPEND TIME WORRYING ABOUT DPS WHEN YOU ARE INITIALLY GEARING YOUR SNS WIZARD. Once you can tank and survive then you can begin to add DPS into your gear. Basically, here is the order of importance for gearing: CC=IAS=Armor=All Resist>>>DPS
Which breakpoint to hit? 2.3, 2.5, 2.73, or 3.0??
2.31 - This AS is considered to be extremely suboptimal for this build. The freeze strength is low, LoH return is undesirable, and APOC return will be slow. While you will be able to stack alot of DPS, your survivability will be very low...and it's not alot of fun.
2.5001 - Some people consider this the best (or, at least acceptable) breakpoint for farming (especially with respect to different gearing options). The freeze strength is reasonable as long as you stack over 50CC (which makes the freezing better), and you'll need some extra LoH (maybe 1000) and extra mitigation. Since the freeze isn't as great, the enemies will get off more attacks. You can reach this AS easily with OS or IAS Chant Will, Sloraks's Madness, or even a fast dagger. Lower breakpoints actually result in higher damage multipliers (extra ~1x). Target 55+CC for better freezing and higher damage multipliers (probably an extra ~1x as well).
2.7273 - This is what the guide mostly focuses on as it is considered the "sweet spot" for both gearing, cost, and results. It is capable farming efficiently and is also the entry level breakpoint for doing Ubers. The build really sings and comes to life at this attack speed. By far the most common gearing options include either an IAS or OS Chant Will, though gearing gets much more challenging with an OS setup (requiring 2 extra IAS pieces of armor). This breakpoint is recommended if you have latency of 200 ms or less. If you are at higher breakpoints with high latency then keystrokes for DS and FN are not immediately registered and are wasted....as is all of the gear to get you there.
3.0001 - This breakpoint is great for doing Ubers, but is also great for farming. It allows you to drop some mitigation since LoH returns are increased (about 20% more) and enemies are locked down like statues. Gearing gets really difficult and expensive once you hit 3.01 since nearly every piece of armor needs IAS (especially with an OS Will). However, since IAS increases DPS, this is one way to push DPS to its maximum! This breakpoint is NOT recommended if you have latency around or above 200 ms.
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If you're are sick of reading through text guides (I've tried to not make it a dreaded wall of text!) and would enjoy a visual presentation of the CM and SNS build, check out Boozor's excellent instructional video series. us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7811541492?page=1
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II. Active Skills (this is stright-up, standard, base "SNS"):
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(1) Diamond Skin(DS)/Diamond shards - Adds DPS when refreshed....which is alot
(2) Explosive Blast(EB)/Chain reaction - bulk of the DPS
(3) Frost Nova(FN)/Bone Chill - adds 15% damage (and is a party buff as well)
(4) Storm Armor(SA)/Shocking Aspect - Huge DPS boost, esp w/ large groups of enemies
(LMouse) Energy Twister(ET)/Wicked Wind - procs CM and triggers LoH
(RMouse) Teleport(TP)/Wormhole or Safe Passasge or Fracture. Useful for adjusting position, jumping arcane beams, avoiding explosions, avoiding damage, etc.
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Skill Rune Variations:
- Diamond Skin/Crystal Shell - increased survivability. DPS drops to about 6x. This is probably the first switch you should make if you are dying too often (other than get better gear!)
- Frost Nova/Deep Freeze - +15% to CC after freezing 5 enemies for 4 seconds....which is most of the time when doing fast farming runs. Helps when your CC is low but should not be a permanent solution since it's a big looser though for single elites and ubers. For farming, it can lead to multipliers of 15x for crowds of 5 or more!!
- Frost Nova/Cold Snap - depending on your attack speed and CC, this can be very useful for freezing ubers. With 2.73 AS and 45 CC I freeze Ubers better using cold snap. Can be used as a crutch for ubers if you don't have 3.0 AS or 50+ CC. It does a ridiculous job of freezing ubers at the 3.01 breakpoint. However, your group looses the 15% damage bonus.
- Teleport/Wormhole is a desirable skill for when you desire fast movement for farming and can handle teleporting into the middle of a pack and have the AS/mitigation to survive until the freeze windeup gets going. Teleport/Safe Passage or Fracture is used where the damage reduction or decoys is handy. Also good for playing in slower groups.
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Variations for active skills:
- Magic Weapon/Electrify instead of TP - adds great boost to multiplier for large mobs
- Slow Time/Stretch Time instead or TP - party buff, great for high MP and Ubers etc. Stacks with addt'l Stretch time from another wiz
- Slow Time/Time Warp instead or TP - party buff, great for 20% damage increase. Does not stack with another wiz.
- Meteor instead of TP: Check the Wiz Compendium sticky for these builds.
- Energy Armor instead of Storm Armor - well, then it's not SNS, is it?!! No, it is not...but a close cousin....the DPS modifier drops to about 4.5-5x. This has utility against Ubers when you need the extra damage mitigation at high MP (Prismatic)....or to keep from getting one-shot against Magda's attacks (Force Armor).
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III. Passive Skills:
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Critical Mass - reset cooldowns
Evocation - reset cooldowns
Cold Blooded - adds 20% damage.
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Variations for passive skills:
- Blur, Glass Cannon, Unstable Anomoly, and Conflagration (procs with Fire Walkers and is a party buff) instead of Evo or Cold-Blooded
note: CM is the largest driver of reducing cooldowns. Evocation plays a role also, and is mostly noticeable for one or two targets (example: Ubers). At higher Attack Speeds and CC (55+CC), it may not be completely necessary if you don't mind a "stutter" lock instead of a "freeze" lock. You can try dropping Evo if this is the case.
note: Cold Blooded is great for the DPS buff, but if you are looking for survivability this is what I'd drop first. You'll likely want to keep both CM and Evo for the best possible freeze since this is your first line of defense. I guess you could use cold snap to help the freeze and drop Evo instead of cold-blooded (Bone chill is only +15% damage whereas Cold blooded is +20, so you come out 5% ahead....but Bone Chill is a group buff, and Cold Blooded is not...so keep that in mind).
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IV. How the build works:
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Bind your active skills to the keys noted above (DS=1, EB=2, FN=3, or whatever works for you). Hit 4 to enable SA (and refresh as necessary). Approach a group of monsters and mash the {-123-} keys as quick as you can while holding down your LMouse button (ET) to spam tornadoes. Enjoy the carpel tunnel! Some people use macros on their mouse or keyboards to continuously spam {-123-}. Debate rages as to whether this violates the Blizard TOS agreement. As far as I know, no one has been banned for doing this. I also use [TAB] instead of [SHIFT] to hold my toon in place....it's just more comfortable that way to hit all the keys.
You ought to be able to teleport into the middle of a group and mash away. Sometimes it is useful to throw a few twisters into the fray first (so they begin proc’ing) and then approach or TP into the group. Frost nova keeps the enemies frozen while EB, SA, and DS do the damage. Be sure the place twisters directly on top of enemies….stray twisters are useless. The twisters are proc’ing CM which will quickly reduce the cooldowns. With FN this results in a “perma” freeze of the enemies. This really is a perma freeze for normal white enemies and most elites. It breaks down some with single elites, and even more with ubers. Attack speed plays a large part in how well enemies are frozen (below). The reduced cooldowns result in fresh DS at a rapid pace….restoring the 10,853 hit point shell as well as releasing the 210% shard damage. With EB, the blasts begin to build up and explode at a rapid pace, after the 1.5 second wait. LoH procs with the twisters….and quickly refills you health….which is handy for standing in desecrator pools or poison gas or arcane beams or whatever else the game throws at you.
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V. Wicked Wind Tick Rate, Breakpoints, and Windeup:
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Shandlar/Loroese Breakpoint post: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8704740408?page=1#12
You can read the link above for a more thorough understanding of the nuances of tick rates, procs, and breakpoints. Basically, as your attack speed increases there is a corresponding increase in the tick rate of the twisters….but it is not a linear relationship. There are hard stops, or breakpoints, which you must get past in order to realize the benefits. Higher attack speed = faster twisters, more CM proc’s, faster cooldowns, more LoH, better freezing, etc.
An attack speed of 2.73 is commonly accepted as the optimal balance of gearing (i.e. cost of gear) and freezing (i.e. proc’ing CM). Coming up short of a breakpoint (i.e. 2.72) gives you no advantage over being at the lower breakpoint (i.e. 2.50)…..so don’t waste time, effort, and gold with being in-between breakpoints. Carefully make purchases which put you at or just over the next breakpoint.
As you hit each breakpoint you should observe a noticeable difference in how well the enemies are frozen and how well your life refills. As you increase AS you will also have a more efficient windup, i.e. the time it takes for you to cast your first FN, lay down twisters to proc CM, and cast FN again. At lower attack speeds you may find your FN wearing off before the next one casts….and the enemies can get off some attacks before they are frozen again. This doesn’t happen (as often) as your AS increases.
Breakpoints:
(You must have an attack speed greater than (not equal to) the AS's listed below)
2.3076 - 30 ticks
2.5001 - 33 ticks (colloquially referred to sometimes as the 2.51 breakpoint)
2.7273 - 36 ticks (colloquially referred to sometimes as the 2.73 breakpoint)
3.0001 - 40 ticks (colloquially referred to sometimes as the 3.01 breakpoint)
3.3333 - 45 ticks
i.e. ticks refer to the number of attacks/procs over the 6-second casting period of a single Wicked Wind twister. Thus, going from the 2.5 to 2.73 breakpoint would result in about 10% more ticks...This (through some convoluted math) results in about 20% more LoH, APOC recovery, cooldowns, etc.
Windeup - The refers to the first few (harrowing, but crucial) seconds of an encounter. What we are looking for is the ability to freeze, and keep frozen, and enemy or group of enemies. This works best at high attack speeds (2.73 or more) and crit chance (50%): it maximizes APOC return (to cast more twisters) and CM (to reduce cooldown on Frost Nova. An efficient windeup can also freeze, and keep frozen, single elites....especially at 3.01 AS (think succubusses, shamans, etc). "But Pie, the build works even with lower CC and low AS. You suck." True,....if you survive the first few seconds, then at "full" windup the build can largely work the same at low and high CC & AS (your AP stays full and you keep things frozen)....but how often do you die at the beginning of an encounter...and can you keep 1 or 2 fast elites frozen? And can you stand in a plagued pool with the lower LoH returns? TL;DR....stick to the higher AS and CC recommendations.
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VI. Attributes and Stat Suggestions:
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Here are some milestones to shoot for as you develop your CM/CW wizard. The most difficult task as you begin gearing for mid-level and end-game is damage mitigation....and DPS to a lesser extent. While it is actually rather easy to reach high attack speed and CC, it becomes exceedingly difficult to keep those same stats while adding All Resist and Armor (and DPS). Add it in little by little as the opportunity arises.
Mitigation Calculator:
davidis.me/post/24090618074/diablo-3-damage-resistance-calculator
Mitigation and all other stats:
www.d3up.com
Entry Level
Attack Speed: 2.50 or 2.73
Crit Chance: 45
Armor: 4000
All resist: 600
Total damage reduction (%mit): 85% (or any combination of All res and Armor to get this)
Hit points: 30,000
DPS: 60-80k
Suggested MP: 2-4
LoH: 80 for every 10,000 DPS
18-20 APOC
Gear cost: less than 10M
Mid Level
Attack Speed: 2.73
Crit Chance: 45-50
Armor: 4,500
All resist: 700
Total damage reduction (%mit): 87% (or any combination of All res and Armor to get this)
Hit points: 35,000+
DPS: 80-150K
Suggested MP: 5-7
LoH: 800 to 1,200 for 100,000 DPS
18-20 APOC
Gear cost: between 50M and 500M
Note: This is a very good place to get to; Gearing gets very difficult and expensive after this.
High Level
Attack Speed: 2.73 or 3.01
Crit Chance: 50+
Armor: 4,500
All resist: 850
Total damage reduction (%mit): 89% (or any combination of All res and Armor to get this)
Hit points: 40,000+
DPS: 150K-225k
Suggested MP: 8-10
LoH: 800
18-20 APOC
Gear cost: between 500M-2B
End Game
Attack Speed: 2.73 or 3.01
Crit Chance: 50+
Armor: 4,500
All resist: 850
Total damage reduction (%mit): 89% (or any combination of All res and Armor to get this)
Hit points: 40,000+
DPS: 225k to 400k+ --> It's sick, just sick.
Suggested MP: 10
LoH: 800
18-20 APOC
Gear cost: don't ask. At least a few slots are 1-2B. For top end, each slot if probably 2B+. It is not easy to achieve and should be considered only for the 1%'ers. Or, 1% of the 1%'ers.
* with the 1.07 RD nerf, scaling LoH with DPS isn't necessary. Since increasing amounts of DPS are not reflected back, you just need enough LoH to survive common affixes. Since you no longer need over 1000 LoH, you can focus more on DPS. Enjoy.
Some of these goals may seem somewhat unattainable,….and may be for quite a while as you begin building your wizard. Just start slow, and add IAS, CC, AR, and armor as you get to each breakpoint. Do not be discouraged if you do not reach these frontier stats. It is always advocated to gear towards defense, and add offensive stats later when you are comfortable with the setup. As you increase MP you will need more and more All Resist, Armor, and DPS…..which gets expensive.
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VII. What type of Gear:
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How to think about and calculate your total attack speed:
You will need to be stacking as much IAS and CC as you can….both on the same item when possible. On a 1M budget you can get to about the 2.31 breakpoint and do MP3 or 4!! us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7178978511
The 100M range will get you to the 2.73 breakpoint with pretty good damage mitigation, capable of higher MP's with some squishyness (and usually more deaths than you’d like to admit) but a lack of DPS (takes forever and a day to kill things). It is comfortable for farming at MP5-7. You can spend billions getting the best damage mitigation as possible…..or reaching an AS of 3.00 or 3.33, laughing at each and every enemy the game throws at you. But it’s the most common wizard build (and regardless, one of very few) capable of doing MP10.
** Warning (math ahead!!)
Formula for planning gear purchases:
(desired AS) = (Weapon attacks per second)(X), where X = total IAS needed.
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Example 1: Hitting the 2.73 breakpoint with a 1.63 AS Chantnodo's Will:
2.73 = 1.63x ..... thus, 2.73/1.63 = 1.6748 or, 68% total IAS (round up).
Take 68/"9" = 7.5, round up to 8. Thus, you'd need eight "9" IAS items to reach 2.73
or
Take 68/"8" = 8.5, round up to 9. Thus, you'd need nine "8" IAS items to reach 2.73
or
Playing with the numbers, you could reach exactly 68% with four "9" IAS and four "8" IAS items
** see exception below for Chantnodo's Will.
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Example 2: Hitting the 2.73 breakpoint with 1.73 AS Chantnodo's Will (+.22 ApS/8% IAS) and other items:
2.73 = 1.73x ..... thus, 2.73/1.73= 1.578 or, 58% total IAS (round up).
Already have Lacunis, Chantnodo's Force, rare gloves, and Inna's Temperence for 35 IAS.
Thus, 58-35=23. You'd need 23 IAS from 3 items. ex, 9+9+5, 8+8+7, 9+8+6. in fact, I have a large variety of rings and amulets with a variety of IAS and CC and other affixes (CD, All Resist, damage, INT) depending on the situation (solo (with help from followers), group, ubers, etc).
Note about DPS: don’t concentrate on your sheet DPS to begin with….the SNS multiplier takes care of a low DPS. CD is one of the last things that you should be adding.
Basic Gear Theorycrafting
All of the IAS armor stacking that you will do is based off of the speed of your Chant Will. There are three basic categories that you can gear around. So here's the deal to reach a 2.73 AS:
Fast IAS Chantodo's Will
1.79 AS Will - you will need 5 pieces of 9 IAS and 1 piece of 8 IAS gear (53 total IAS)
1.78 AS Will - you will need 6 pieces of 9 IAS gear (54 total IAS)
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Slow IAS Chantodo's Will
1.77 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (55 total IAS)
1.76 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (55 total IAS)
1.75 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (56 total IAS)
1.74 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (57 total IAS)
1.73 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (58 total IAS)
1.72 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (59 total IAS)
1.71 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (60 total IAS)
1.70 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (61 total IAS)
1.69 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (62 total IAS)
1.68 AS Will - you will need 7 pieces of IAS gear (63 total IAS)
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OS or CD Chantodo's Will
1.65 AS Will - you will need 8 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (66 total IAS)
1.64 AS Will - you will need 8 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (67 total IAS)
1.63 AS Will - you will need 8 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (68 total IAS)
1.62 AS Will - you will need 8 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (69 total IAS)
1.61 AS Will - you will need 8 pieces of IAS gear, any combination (70 total IAS)
You have 10 slots where you can stack IAS. Assuming you are wearing Vial Ward and Blackthorne's Jousting Mail (typical) and add IAS gear as suggested above, that leaves you with:
- Fast IAS Chantodo's Will: two open non-IAS slots
- Slow IAS Chantodo's Will: one open non-IAS slot
- OS or CD Chantodo's Will: no open non-IAS slots
This valuable "open" non-IAS slot can be used in a variety of ways: Rare bracers (for EHP), Amulet (for DPS, etc), gloves (DPS or EHP), or ring (Legendary).
An example of a typical ~100M build is detailed in the first post after the end of this guide.
Here is a link to a thread with gg gear suggestions. Aspire to these goals. I give my own suggestions below as well. us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7593740666
Basic Gear Setup:
The setup requires 2 sources of LoH and 2 sources of APOC. After helping people gear for as long as I have....through this guide as well as ingame, I've come to the conclusion that pretty much any non-GG gear set should go through these 3 items:
Storm Crow for APOC and LoH
Blackthorne's Pants for LoH
Chant Will for APOC (preferably IAS for the speed (perhaps controversial, but that's my opinion))
That also mean a non-APOC force (about 10x+ less expensive than an APOC version). Storm Crow is about 10-100x less expensive than a Mempo.
Using an OS or CD Chant Will requires a trifecta (CC/CD/IAS) ammy (ALOT more expensive than a CC/IAS version) and Lacunis (supporting stats are poor). It can certainly work, and, usually, and maybe ironically, ends up in just about the same place for about the same cost as what an IAS Wand would do for you. Don't discount IAS Wands just because they don't have crit.
So, yeah, Mempo/APOC Force/OS Will wins out in the end...but only when you are approaching 200K DPS and have a billy (or 2 or 10) in the bank. Seriously. Not trying to stifle creativity....this is just the way it works most efficiently.
Common items to increase attack speed include:
Chantnodo’s Will and non-APOC Force: Chant's Will has an incredible base AS as well as the opportunity to roll +IAS, OS, CD, etc. While the OS/CD is nice, it can be much more expensive and harder to gear to 2.73 with. Likewise, a non-APOC Will with Storm Crow gives you the 18-20 APOC you need. If you go APOC Force and Mempo (below) its gets suiper expensive fast. I'd suggest starting with an IAS Chant Will and non-APOC Force. That combo can take you up to and over 200K DPS.
-bad: anything with AS below 1.71 really
-good: 1.72 AS, 1000+ DPS
-better: 1.75 AS, 1150+ DPS
-better: 1.78+ AS, 1000+ DPS
-best: 1.78+ AS, 1100+ DPS
-God-mode: 1.79 AS, 1200+ DPS
[Note: the +IAS is applied to base wand attack speed (1.4) followed by adding the +attacks per second. i.e. the +IAS in this special case is worth slightly less than typical +IAS....and can interfere with the formula above. Plan accordingly.] Chants Force rolls automatically with additional IAS. The +130 INT for the set is certainly welcome.
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Rare gloves: Needs IAS (8-9) and CC (8+). Add in All res, INT, VIT, armor, armor, or CD (in order of importance) when you can afford it. If you have IAS covered elsewhere, then CC, All Res, and CD can be your first options.
- good: 8/9 IAS, 7.5+ CC, 50+ All Res
- better: 8/9 IAS, 8.5+ CC, 50+ All Res, 50+ INT
- best: 8/9 IAS, 9.5+ CC, 50+ All Res, 25+ CD, INT, vit/armor
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Tal Rasha’s Relentless Pursuit: hard to pass up the +IAS here. Solid chest armor since it comes with INT and VIT. Recommendation: Buy some with (at least) alot of armor (since adding All Res is quite expensive).
-good: 8/9 IAS, 750 armor, 150+ INT/50+ VIT
-better: 8/9 IAS, 65+ All Res, 150+ INT, 80+ VIT
-best: 8/9 IAS, 65+ All Res, 650+ armor, high INT and VIT
-best: 8/9 IAS, 150+ INT, Armor or All Res
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Lacuni Prowlers: good place for +IAS, bad place for all other stats, for the cost. Adding Resist All, armor, INT, CC (which is critical to the build) or anything else is very expensive, especially when starting out on a budget. Rare bracers (crafted with 200+ INT) with 5.0+ CC and good defensive stats (all resist, armor, probably VIT) are really optimal here. You can choose to use Lacuni’s, but your damage mitigation will certainly suffer, and probably isn't worth it.
-bad: 8/9 IAS, 3.0 CC, no other stats
-good: 8/9 IAS, 3.5 CC, 450+ armor
-better: 8/9 IAS, 4.0 CC, 50+ All Res
-best: 8/9 IAS, 5.0+ CC, 50+ All Res, INT, VIT, and or Armor (good luck) . Recommendation: If you do go this route...make sure they at least have some +CC and armor.
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Witching hour: expensive, but good source of IAS and CD. Even a cheap one is good: IAS and CD rolls where you can't get either in a rare. One of the last basic items to add (simply because if its cost for a "better" one).
-good: 8/9 IAS, single resist, >40 CD.
-better: 8/9 IAS, 50+ All Res
-best: 8/9 IAS, 50+ All Res, and armor, vit, or extra INT roll.
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Inna’s Temperence: One option for pants. Has IAS, MS, and open sockets. Not usually seen as the first choice for reaching 2.73, maybe because it's too tempting to have LoH/VIT/%life found in the Blackthorne's Pants (below).
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Rings: should try to max out IAS (8 or 9) and CC (at least 4). Other stats are an afterthought in the beginning. As you upgrade look for +damage, VIT, AR, INT, CD, etc.
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Amulet: There are alot of options here, depending on your setup: Typically (if you already have 800 LoH from Storm Crow and Blackthorne's pants), I try to max out CC (9 +) and CD (90+.....just because this is the only piece of armor where you can roll up to 100 CD). This is not the place for IAS/CC/CD trifecta (to begin with).....there are too many other things that you want the flexibility to stick here to round out your build: All Res, Armor, +min/max, VIT, INT, etc. Trifecta is expensive and reduces selection. This is also a common place to add LoH if you are running with Mempo and APOC Force). It’s cheaper and you can get more of it here than on a ring (even all 800+ if you want!). Upgrade to one with more INT or AR or damage.
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Slorak's Madness (w/+CC to ET): This is an alternate wand which rolls with CD and IAS, but no additional attacks per second like Chant's Will does. It is great for damage and twister crits. Its pretty impossible to get to the 2.73 breakpoint, but with your CC and twister crit your total crit can be over 65....and can feel like the 2.73 breakpoint. The OS gives a nice DPS boost too.
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Andariel's Visage: While a little off the beaten path, this helm does come standard with 8-9 IAS and 4.5 CC.....but I've really never seen a CM wiz use one. It has no LoH, you take extra fire damage, and since it's a non-APOC helm, you'll need APOC on your offhand. And if you can afford a good APOC offhand, you can probably afford a CC Mempo. If you switch from a non APOC Chant's Force to another APOC offhand (Oculus or Tal Rasha's Glare) then you lose your +130 INT Chant's set bonus. See where I'm going with this? You can think about it.....just not for very long.
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Tasker and Theo: Great gloves for starting CM's. They come with IAS, OS, armor, up to 50 of each of the 4 stats, and 2 random properties....one of which you will use for CC. The other one could be All Res, double VIT (cheap!) or INT roll, or CD). All Res and CD tend to increase the price quite a bit. Can't beat them for mitigation! Once you have enough armor elsewhere, you can move on to rare gloves with no armor (where you can more easily go trifecta with All Res or whatever you happen to need).
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Common items to increase Armor and All Resist:
Zunimassa's Marrow & Pox (or boots): Actually, a great starting set for CM. Chest comes with All Res and can get armor, INT, and VIT rolls that are ALOT higher than anything you could afford with a Tal's Chest. It just means you need to have IAS on another one of your armor pieces (IAS ammy or Lacuni). The ring will have to be IAS with other supporting stats - and includes a 130 INT bonus.
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Vile Ward: Comes with high armor and high all resist. While adding VIT and % life are nice, consider also adding STR. Remember that STR=Armor. The better your defenses are the less you'll be dipping into your life pool
-good: 180+ INT, 100+ STR, 75+ All Res
-better: 180+ INT, 100+ STR, 70+ VIT, 75+ All Res
-better: 180+ INT, 150+ STR, 75+ All Res
-best: 230+ INT, 150+ STR, 75+ VIT, 75+ All Res
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Ice Climbers: Comes with high Resist All, %life, and OS. Look for one with high INT and Armor/STR or VIT. Great place to increase both EHP and DPS
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Blackthorne’s Jousting Mail: Great source of LoH, VIT, and %life. You generally pick up two LoH items with about 400 each...this is one good place to get some. Recommendation: No IAS here, but you should add at least some Armor and/or All Resist.
-good: 700+ armor, 65 All res, 350 LoH
-better: 700+ armor, 70 All res, 450 LoH
-best: 70 All Res, 250 VIT or 90 INT
-best: 2OS, AR or INT/VIT
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Storm Crow: great helm with APOC and LoH. Can get ones with 3-4.5 CC dirt cheap. Problem is that it can only roll one of these stats: All Res, CC, OS, or double INT roll. Good supporting stats as well, ~100 of each main stat.
-passable: 400+ armor, 425+ LoH, 70+ All Res
-good: 400+ armor, 400+ LoH, 4 CC
-better: 400+ armor, 400+ LoH, 5.5 CC
* if you go with the All Res option, as I do, really try to max out all the stats. Since its not contributing to CC, you better make it worthwhile for armor, All Res, and LoH.
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Rings and Amulet: These should first be stacked with appropriate IAS and/or CC. After that, this can be a budget place to add in Armor and All Resist. As you gear up, and can afford to stack more All Res and armor on your......armor.......(WH, Tal's Chest, BT pants, Boots, bracers/gloves) then you can replace those mitigation stats with DPS (INT, CD, min/max, etc). This is where end-game gearing gets really challenging.
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Natalya’s Reflection & Natalya's Bloody Footprints: This ring and boot set gets you +7 CC bonus, essentially netting a +8/9 IAS & 7 CC ring. Find a ring with Resist All, INT, or VIT for starters. The boots is a perfect place to add VIT (though expensive) since they have little contribution to DPS. This is also an easy place to add DEX (up to 200). Buying a ring that has CC (and INT, etc) is expensive and clearly an end game buy - but has the possibility to really jack up that stat.
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Advanced and End Game Items include:
Litany Ring: The ring is great on many levels (high INT, AR, 4.5CC) and with IAS is great for a CM Wiz. What really separates this ring from other is the -elite reduction. This essentially acst as a little less than 1% mit (or 50-80 more AR (depending on alot of things, math mostly!)) and can be huge for survivability at higher MP's, for doing ubers, or as a substitution for a big chunk of AR elsewhere.
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Mempo of Twilight and Chantnodo’s Force with APOC: These generally go hand in hand. With APOC on the off-hand you can get a Mempo (a non-APOC helm), which has high INT as well as %life, All Resist, and an OS. Enough gold can buy you one with CC. Since Mepho is also a source of IAS, this allows you more flexibility in getting to an AS of 3.00 or itemization possibilities in general.
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Chantnodo’s Will with OS or CD: Pricy, but a common way to obtain the highest DPS’s. With an OS you lose IAS. Plan accordingly.
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Zuni Chest/Pox/Trail: These can clearly be end-game pieces as well as low/mid pieces. Since there is no IAS on the chest, the two random rolls can be used to make a monster All Res/INT/VIT/Armor piece. The two set can be completed with a ring or boots. Boots and ring though can be another option. The "TriPox" clearly rocks as a trifecta (and is end-game), but can only roll 32-34CD. Zuni Trail needs both random rolls for Armor and All Res (unless you're after something else)...but the 7-8 poison damage is clearly a big deal.
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Ice Climbers and rare ring: Ice Climbers can clearly be end game if you have plenty of CC elsewhere. The advantage of Zuni set is 130 Intel and 7-8% poison, but you are limited to TriPox, which is expensive and has a CD cap of 34. Ice Climbers can roll 300+ Intel, so if you have 80 Intel Trifecta Ring, set bonus advantage from Zuni is eliminated. The 8% Poison then can be made up by a higher CD roll or simply higher IAS/CC combination with decent CD roll. The Ice Climbers also have higher Life and/or Armor and Rare Rings are "cheaper" (compare to those godly TriPox). .
Legendary Ammy’s: Blackthorn’s Duncraig Cross and Tal Rasha’s Allegiance. Also Blackthorn Medal (legacy) and Ouroboros to a lesser extent (max IAS and CC are 7). Each have different combinations of LoH, CC, IAS, and CD. Set bonuses can be nice too. Great for maxing out stats for DPS, but usually expensive to get with both IAS and CC (especially Tal Rasha’s). Great to chase when you have the gold and/or room to play within IAS and CC goals. The Duncraig cross (in my opinion) really only works in an end game setting with Mempo and APOC Chant Will. You don't need it for LoH if you are using Blackthorne pants and Storm Crow (which already give you all the LoH that you need). If you get one with CC, then you are dumping a slot where I'd suggest maxing CD. If you max CD, then you are dumping CC (on one of the few slots that can roll up to 10...and you'll never hit 45+ CC). And if you can afford a tri-Cross (IAS, CC, and CD) then it'll work great....but they are quite rare and extremely expensive.
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VIII. Playstyle and dealing with affixes
====================================================
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When approaching a group of monsters you can either teleport into the middle of them or approach them slowly and begin to freeze. You need to have good armor and all resist so you can take some pain.....before you bring the pain! Typically when playing solo I use teleport....it just increases survivability. It works well for teleporting away from explosions, jumping over arcane beams, and tracking down enemies that are kiting you.
Position adjustment with this build is key. You might think that you just teleport into the middle of a pack, freeze, kill them, rinse, and repeat. It's not that easy. You'll want to adjust your position and find a happy place as quickly as you can. If not, you have to move away a bit....and you might miss an attack (freeze) turn and that may give the monster a chance to attack (physical, or launch more arcane, desecrate, etc). If you can handle standing in the pain and not adjust (high armor and all resist), then you'll keep them frozen better and kill them faster.
Each encounter should be something like this:
a) teleport into the middle of a group
b) mash {-13-} (i.e. FN & DS) while holding down [LMouse] to lay down tornadoes.
c) quickly reposition while still mashing {-13-}
d) mash {-123-} (i.e. FN, DS, and EB) while holding down [LMouse] still
---repeat until done
I usually try to hold off on casting EB for a few seconds. Since it costs AP, it's taking away from casting tornadoes for the first few seconds. It's more important to get as many tornadoes proc'cing and recovering AP as you can before you start casting alot of AP spenders. Once you have alot of tornadoes proc'cing then start casting EB as fast as you can. Depending on the situation (i.e. elite affix, large hoard) it can be invaluable to cast a few tornadoes first, so you get them proc'ing ahead of time....this can help get some enemies under control easier (phase beasts, other fast enemies, etc.
Trash enemies are a great benefit if you use them properly. If you are having a tough time with a group of elites (teleporter, fast, succubusses, any single elite, etc) and can't freeze them because you are always low on AP, try to drag them to a group of trash enemies. Once you drop a few tornadoes on the trash enemies you'll be proc'cing a ton of AP and should help freeze them down. This trick is to not kill the trash enemies too quickly!! If you're playing in a group, be sure to tell your fellow friends to leave the trash enemies alone (you need them to proc!!) and focus on the elites.
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There are some differences in playstyles that you can use depending on the situation that you are in:
Playing solo: At low MP I use wormhole, since you can hold down the teleport button and teleport 4 times. It allows you to move through a map quickly....especially when you're killing monsters quickly as well. At high MP I use safe passage for survivability (you could also use fracture). Since killing enemies is the big time sink here, moving through the map quickly with wormhole doesn't yield a huge time savings. The survivability is also important because the last thing you want to do is die in the middle of a map and have to retrace your steps,...which is a waste. You CAN use wormhole at high MP, it just hurts alot when you "accidentally" teleport into the middle of a hoard of monsters....you need to have alot of armor/resists and high CC to get the freeze windup going - its not for the faint of heart.
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Playing in groups: Alot of it depends on the group and is the same for playing solo. The exception is usually at high MP. Since monster health is so much higher, and you have a group to distract monsters - I tend to use Magic Weapon/Electrify instead of teleport. It has some exponential twister multiplier that deals more damage than traditional SNS alone when facing large groups of enemies (>3). Since the monsters sick around longer in high MP (MP 8-10) this can be a big time saver.
Playing with another CM/WW wiz: Wow. This opens the door for all sorts of variations. Since two wizards together can freeze better an one on their own you can actually dumb down your freezing ability a bit and the combination is still awesome for freezing. Maybe you use firewalker boots and Conflag instead of evocation for the extra 10% damage. Maybe you use a Meteor build and Conflag instead of evocation for extra DPS. You could probably (though I've never tried it) drop down to the 2.5 breakpoint and stack alot of CD and INT for extra damage. Also, since bone chill does not stack, just one wiz needs to use it...the one with the highest DPS can use Deep Freeze instead. It basically lets you break out of the strict SNS build and have a little different type of fun. Just remember....don't let the other CM wiz hang out to dry...you still need to be in there freezing as well!
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Ubers: the WW/CM guide has a good section at the end with how to deal with Ubers
us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7350715501
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Affixes. Here are some of the affixes that you most need to be worried about and some strategies to tackle them:
- Plagued: standing in the middle of a pool just takes high enough Res All, armor, and/or LoH. If you can't do it....gear up. This is now one of the tougher pools that you have to stand in...worse the desecrator.
- Desecrator: Maybe its just me, but it's never a good idea to stand in a desecrator pool, though its a little easier than standing in plagued. High mitigation gives you a much larger window to readjust your positioning, and find a happier place.
- Molten: Watch out for the explosion afterwards.....its pretty much insta-death. If you can survive a molton blast then you're doing really well for that MP level.
- Arcane: Standing toward the center of an arcane beam is never advisable....but its doable in the middle of the beam, and out toward the end should never be a problem. Try to stay put and survive the beam if you can. If you're going to take two hits (back to back (scissor style), from two beams) just be sure that your LoH refills before the second one hits.
- Eletrified: Pretty tough to stand in the middle of a pack where you're getting electrified by everyone. Also, standing on top of an electrified deals ALOT more damage than standing a little farther away. I find it best to stand where you can take it from two of them, and let the rest come close enough to get frozen, but not electrify you....then deal with the rest when the first two are dead. Learn to recognize electrify before you teleport into the middle of them....its insta-death if you're not geared well enough.
- Fire Chains: Similar to electrified. Getting into the middle of all the chains is near insta-death, even if well geared. Try to freeze two if you can, and hope the third one come near enough to freeze. Staying against a wall usually works well too, or up against a door frame - since you can't get surrounded on all sides. In the middle of a field is the worst place to encounter this affix.
- Frozen: hopefully you have teleport. Enough said.
- Jailed: hopefully you have teleport. Actually, this usually isn't that bad. You can continue your attacks afterward without missing too much. Or teleport out.
- Knockback: extremely annoying, since it pushes you away (and the monsters follow) from your tornadoes which are proc'cing all your abilities. The best strategy is to teleport back to the same area you left ASAP. Since its a quick attack, you can usually get back there before the enemies unfreeze and move too far....and you still get a few seconds (and procs) out of the tornadoes. Wait too long, and you're starting all over again.
- Nightmare: similar to knockback. Since you're nightmared for several seconds its likely the monsters have unfroze and moved from the tornadoes. Too bad.
Reflect Damage: Since the 1.07 nerf this affix isn't that big of a problem. The RD works for the first few seconds, but after frozen the reflect shields turn off. Also, meteors could be a problem since they deliver a single large amount of damage vs. standard SNS, which it more gradual damage.
- Vortex: could actually be a good thing! It depends on what the other affixes are. Be prepared to move or teleport away if you need to.
- Shielding: Adjust your positioning so that you're attacking several monsters that are not shielded. If and when the shielding moves to one that you were freezing, the move so you're freezing several again.
- Waller: This is tough because your tornadoes cannot cast on the other side of a wall. You'll have to re-position yourself so you are on the same side of the wall with the monsters.
Teleporter: any slight break in freezing gives them a chance to teleport away. This usually happens when you are down to just the elites (i.e. not enough proc's). Try to move then into some trash enemies so you can get more proc's....and freeze them better. Otherwise you'll just have to chase them down.
Appendix A: Example of a 100M gearset
Here's an example of a freshly rolled ~10 paragon wiz. This ought to be a decent model to gear by for about a 100M budget and getting very nice mitigation at 2.73. There are plenty of other variations, this is just a common one that I suggest.
(gear and cost are actual examples found on the AH on July 27th, 2013)
StormCrow: 400 armor, 4.5 CC, 442 LoH (990k)
Vile Ward: 184 STR, 235 INT, 99 VIT, 626 armor, 72 AR (cost: 5M)
Tal's Chest: 324 INT (inc 3 gems), 138 VIT, 690 Armor, 8 IAS (cost: 5M)
Tasker and Theo: 7.5 CC, 8 IAS, 124 VIT, 179 INT (inc gem), 599 armor (cost: 3M)
Witching Hour: 71 AR, 35 CD, 8 IAS, 289 Armor (3M)
Ammy: (rare) 9 IAS, 7.5 CC, 70 AR, +30 max, 45 VIT, 112 INT (10M)
Bracers: (rare) 465 Armor, 78 AR, 6 CC, 97 VIT, 88 INT (6M)
Blackthorne's Jousting Mail: 709 Armor, 58 AR, 10% life, 471 LoH (cost: 18M)
Ring: (rare): 7 IAS, 4 CC, 135 INT (OS + gem), 68 AR, 4% life (cost: 5.7M)
Nat's Ring: 8 IAS, 97I, 70 AR, 28 max (cost: 8M)
Nat's Boots: 602 Armor, 70 INT, 165 DEX, 78 AR (2M)
Chant Will: 1132 DPS, 1.74 AS, 189 INT (15M)
Chant Force: 254 Avg Damage, 9 IAS, 9.5 CC, 188 INT, 151 STR (7.5M)
This should get you to something like:
Armor: 5031
AR: 786
DPS: 90k
CC: 50.5
AS: 2.74
Health: 34.4k
LoH: 893
EHP: 313k (Kieble)
Cost: Was shooting for 100M, but actually spent 89M)
ALTERNATIVE:
Ammy: trifecta with CD, but no INT/VIT/AR. Less EHP, more DPS
Rare ring and Ice climbers: probably more EHP and DPS, but less CC
Lacunis and non-IAS ammy (with CD): more DPS but less EHP
Future Upgrades:
- 1.78 or 1.79 Chant Will....then you can drop IAS from Ammy
- OS Chant Will....but you'd need to add lacunis
- faster Chant Will, but less than 1.78. Could then get right ring and ammy with less IAS...and more of other affixes (i.e. more options)
Appendix B: Typical gear setups for 2.73 (and a few for 3.01)
(please proofread...I just recently put this together. If there are mistakes, or think there are mistakes, or have questions....please post in the comments. Thanks!!)
Typical Gear Setups:
Setup A: 2.73 with Storm Crow, "Slow" IAS Chant Will, Zuni Chest, and 7 IAS gear pieces.
(suggested for any build, really, beginner to advanced)
- Extremely common beginner setup. Easy to gear, inexpensive, and very forgiving. Zuni chest adds easy EHP, DPS suffers.
* Chant Will with 1.68-1.77 AS and non-APOC Chant Force (Will and Storm Crow provide the 2 sources of APOC)
* Storm Crow and Blackthorne Pants (provide the 800+ LoH needed)
* Zuni Chest - provides AR, and easy to stack Armor/INT/VIT at a low cost
* Remaining IAS items are gloves, Nat's ring, Zuni Pox (below), Witching Hour, ammy, and Lacuni
* Zuni Pox for the 130 INT bonus. Must use the IAS version. Adding CC much later will be difficult (TriPox)
* Nat's Boots for the 7CC Set bonus
* Witching Hour, of course.
Setup B: 2.73 with Storm Crow, "slow" IAS Chant Will, Tal's Chest, and 7 IAS gear pieces.
(can be tough for a starter build)
- Extremely common beginner setup. Easy to gear, inexpensive, and very forgiving. Tal chest adds easy DPS, EHP suffers.
* Chant Will with 1.68-1.77 AS and non-APOC Chant Force (Will and Storm Crow provide the 2 sources of APOC)
* Storm Crow and Blackthorne Pants (provide the 800+ LoH needed)
* Tal's Chest - provides IAS, but difficult to stack AR/Armor/INT/VIT at a low cost
* Remaining IAS items are gloves, rare ring, Nat's ring, Witching Hour and
a) IAS ammy and rare bracers: rare or crafted bracers can be gg and BIS vs Lacunis. Means a trifecta ammy if you want CD
-or-
b) non-IAS ammy and Lacuni: CC/CD Ammy is great, but you're suck with Lacuni's...which are the (stat) killers of budget builds
* Nat's Boots for the 7CC Set bonus
* Witching Hour, of course.
Setup C: 2.73 with Storm Crow, "fast" IAS Chant Will, and 6 IAS gear pieces.
(suggested for an intermediate/advanced build)
* This setup is the same as A&B, but necessitates 9 IAS on only six items with a 1.78 Chant Will (or five 9 IAS and one 8 IAS items with a 1.79 Will)
* The cost can be steep for 9 IAS items and the "fast" Will, but it allows you to use one less IAS piece, typically:
a) rare/crafted bracers and non-IAS ammy if using Tal's Chest
-or-
b) non-IAS ammy and Zuni Chest if using Zuni Chest
Setup D: 2.73 with Storm Crow, OS (or CD) Chant Will, and 8 IAS gear pieces.
(suggested for an intermediate/advanced build)
* This setup is difficult/expensive to do since nearly every piece of armor needs IAS, but can lead to higher DPS overall
* The 8 pieces of IAS gear typically are: Nat's ring, gloves, Tal's Chest, WH, Ammy, Lacunis, rare ring, and Chant Force.
Setup E: 2.73 with Mempo and APOC Force (as above, but with one less IAS gear piece)
* This setup is an advanced setup simply becaue of the cost of the items involved. APOC Forces and CC Mempos are premium items, and are very expensive. If you buy a budget Chant Will (low avg damage) you will be sacrificing alot of DPS and if you buy a non-CC Mempo you will be stuck with low(er) CC. Be aware and plan accordingly
* The setup is bacically the same as A-D with the following exceptions
a) with no LoH from the Storm Crow you will have to pick up ~400 on an ammy or ring.
b) since Mempo has IAS you can drop IAS from one of your other items
note: since Mempo has OS, CC, AR, and up to 200 INT it is really GG/BIS. With Storm Crow you only get one of these. But CC will cost you alot.
Setup F: 3.01 with Storm Crow, "slow" IAS Chant Will, Tal's Chest, and 8 IAS gear pieces.
(suggested for an intermediate/advanced build)
* pretty much the same setup as Setup B, but using at least a 1.75 Chant Will and eight 9 IAS pieces (ring, gloves, chest, belt, source, ring bracers, ammy)
Setup G: 3.01 with Storm Crow, "fast" IAS Chant Will, Tal's Chest, and (still) 8 IAS gear pieces
(suggested for an intermediate/advanced build)
* If you have a "fast" Will, its allows you to use six 9 IAS pices to hit the 2.73 breakpoint, but adding 15 additional IAS will get you to the 3.01 breakpoint. Obviously, a 1.79 Chant WIll gives you on extra IAS point to play with in your gear (versus a 1.78 Will).
Setup H: 3.01 with Mempo, APOC Force, OS/CD Chant Will, and 10 IAS pieces
(suggested for an advanced build)
* not recommended for the faint at heart.
* No much to descrive here....10 IAS pieces (everywhere but boots and shoulders)
* requires trifecta and quadfecta's on rings, ammy, and gloves to work well (esp at higher DPS).
***** If you have sufficient mitigation already, Inna's pants can be substituted for any other IAS piece. Since it only has one random roll you typically have to choose between AR, armor, INT, or VIT. Unless you find a split INT/VIT or VIT/VIT roll, something like that.
Appendix C: Math Wizardry
submitted by Loroese, The Critical Math Wizard
Definitions
Damage tics: WW deals damage approximately 15 times per second, based on SA procs. Each damage tic can crit and each crit can proc CM and SA. SA and CM seem to use this same mechanic though the exact number of tics per second is unknown and might change depending on attack speed. 15 tics is based on 2.5 APS experiments (shocking aspect proc/cm procs happen more frequently than they are supposed to be happening, an unsolved mystery of sorts.).
LoH tics: LoH tics at intervals and the amount of LoH gained at any given interval is hard to predict. Over the coarse of the entire cast the amount of LoH gained is determined by the breakpoint with each LoH tic being equal to your LoH value multiplied by the spell coefficient. APoC seems to use LoH tics to determine how much AP is returned.
Displayed Damage Tics: Damage is displayed no faster than every 0.5s for WW, regardless of the number of LoH or damage tics that occur. The displayed damage is the sum of damage done over that interval. The damage can include crits but because it is the sum of multiple damage tics it will never display as a crit (i.e., text will never be yellow).
CM/SNS Mechanics and calculations
Now to break down how all that comes together. If you have 2.73 APS, let's say you cast FN once per second to keep your freeze going. That means you cast WW at a rate of 1.73 per second (2.73 - 1). They last 6s so on average you have 1.73*6 = 10.38 twisters active at a time. Each twister has 6 LoH tics per second on average and the spell coefficient is 1/8 so you gain 6/8 of your LoH per twister or about 7.8x your LoH back as life from the WW per second. When you account for FN+DS+EB it ends up being closer to 9x. If we assume 15 damage tics per second, then we expect about 155.7 damage tics per second at full windup for WW. If you have 50% crit, and using the spell coefficient that means about 77.9 crits per second and about 9.7 CM and SA procs per second (77.9*0.125=9.7).
Appendix D: Useful Links
Links:
CM Simulator
d3cmww.com
DPS Test:
us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7004691927
Mechanics And Game Information Compendium
us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8770117237
Crafting - List of affixes that can roll, and probabilities:
www.reddit.com/r/Diablo3Strategy/comments/17qxiu/crafting_107_crafting_probabilities
Crafting - Guide:
diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-3-crafting-strategy-the-new-archon-items
Crafting - Probabilities:
www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/18cekp/107_crafting_explained_approximate_chance_of/
Followers: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8569307848?page=1
Experience Calculator: d3xp.weebly.com/
Best EXP Routes: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/8796351234?page=1
How to calculate EXP: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/9793089612#1
Best paragon leveling: us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/10307820683
ROS Paragon calculator: diablo3xp.com/
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Other:
Well...part 2 is complete! After Void and Novice bumped/trolled it to the end, Void closed it out with reply number 500.
Part one: 11/26 - 3/12
about 14 weeks it was open
17,943 views
Part two: 3/13 - 4/30
about 6 weeks it was open
4,195 views
(part one gets some double billing, since that's where the wiz compendium links to....and then you can follow the link to part 2)