1- Casting a signature spell every second is a far too high rate. this would preclude casting your damaging spells as it does not seem that you can do 2 things at once. I.E. at any given instant, you can only case 1 spell, so you must choose between a signature spell and an offensive/utility spell. This leads to a "weave" sequence aside from the start of a fight where you have full AP. For instance, assuming you start at 60 AP (for simplicity's sake) you could do 1 hydra then x signature spells (with AP regen effects) until you have 60 AP again, then repeat. If you use a channel or low-cost offensive spell, the amount of signature spell casting will be vastly less.
2- Prodigy sounds like an on-cast proc, rather than an on-hit proc. I would interpret the passive to give you 5 energy regardless of the number of targets hit by the signature spell. All the non-magic missile signature spells yellow rune's proc energy gain on-hit, and so electrocute and shock pulse could regen 7, 14, or 21 AP depending on targets, and spectral blade would do 7x targets hit (with the 3x hit per cast, i don't think those 3 hits count as three actual hits; they may but that would make SB far and away the best AP regen ability).
That's actually the point Panthera. Many people are using Signature spells solely as AP regen only in order to cast spells like Meteor and etc. But as the numbers are proving (with lots of assumptions), if ruined correctly they really do stand on their own and should be part of your spell cycle.
I think Prodigy is on-proc, not on hit, but need confirmation on this. Which means if you do use it as AP regen, only, you don't even need to bother aiming. Just click click click to get AP and cast your dmg spell.
Yea, those figures I put up are using that same 'scheme' you suggested. All AP is exhausted, then regenerated by Sig spells, then repeat. Over a certain time period I can total up the damages to see which method/rune is more effective.
I presume that indigo (Fork) MMs do not track and thus cannot all hit one target; does anyone have video of the skill in action?
I think that for net dps, crimson Familiar will (clearly?) always beat golden. Consider dam/min efficiency:
60sec * 12.5AP/sec (base regen) = 750AP/min
750AP * 1.4 (crim Fam modifier) = 1050 AP-worth of damage
vs
750AP + 270AP = 1020 AP-worth of damage
(note: Astral Presence will shift this further in favor of crimson Familiar.)
I cannot yet see any scenario in which this logic will not hold; furthermore, in many cases, you will have forced down time due to running away or whatever other reason, meaning that some of the additional golden Familiar regen will go to waste, whereas crimson Familiar never goes to waste, only your base regen might. I can only see golden Familiar being superior if you wish to have the added utility of more AP; this may make sense, for example, on HC, where you probably never want to be totally out of AP, whether it boosts your dps or not.
Having a larger AP pool will, I think, not be as useful as more regen, in general. However, if you use a build which intends to "pump" with a Sig spell and "purge" with a high-cost spell, it may be very useful, as it can allow you to sustain phases of that cycle for longer periods of time. Depending on the situation, that may or may not lead to a dps bump.
What I am wondering is at what point is the damage of the signature spell secondary to its AP regenerative effects? Is Golden Electrocute with Prodigy the best spell to cast in an AoE pull (3+ monsters), with your damaging rotation being AT debuffed enemies getting disintegrated?
Also, DKR, I believe AT Crimson debuff needs to be in the rotation, as it seems to be quite a big buff to damage, but only arcane. Does AT need to be cast before MM spam, since it will increase that damage by 20%, and does this make MM better than the other sig spells?
"Disruption" Arcane Torrent Crimson rune: "Targets hit by Arcane Torrent become Disrupted for [6] seconds, causing them to take [120%] additional damage from any attacks which deal Arcane damage." Unless this behaves in a manner other than what it says, that is not a 1.2x multiplier, it's a 2.2x multiplier; 120% *additional* damage.
On a flip side of that, Electrocute says it can jump, hitting "up to [2] enemies;" if we go by that wording, it is not saying it jump to 2 enemies after the first for a total of 3 hits, but that it hits a total of 2 enemies. If you can hit with all of them, I think Shock Pulse is going to be better (assuming golden runes), and if there are more than 3 to hit and you're willing to get up close, golden Spectral Blade will probably take the cake.
Personally, I think I will prefer the consistency of a golden-runed MM, since you will get your 14AP whether there is one creature or many.
On a flip side of that, Electrocute says it can jump, hitting "up to [2] enemies;" if we go by that wording, it is not saying it jump to 2 enemies after the first for a total of 3 hits, but that it hits a total of 2 enemies. If you can hit with all of them, I think Shock Pulse is going to be better (assuming golden runes), and if there are more than 3 to hit and you're willing to get up close, golden Spectral Blade will probably take the cake.
Yah, I brought this up in another post, but Electrocute does actually hit 3 targets. Someone had a great video of the beta showing it (no runes in beta so it must be base effect).
Oh, that vastly improves the value of the ability to me! It also throws into question much of the wording of other abilities... although this one was one of the most-ambiguous.
What I am wondering is at what point is the damage of the signature spell secondary to its AP regenerative effects? Is Golden Electrocute with Prodigy the best spell to cast in an AoE pull (3+ monsters), with your damaging rotation being AT debuffed enemies getting disintegrated?
Also, DKR, I believe AT Crimson debuff needs to be in the rotation, as it seems to be quite a big buff to damage, but only arcane. Does AT need to be cast before MM spam, since it will increase that damage by 20%, and does this make MM better than the other sig spells?
There is much math to be done...
I think it was ElectricEel (i think) that brought up, or at least gave me the thought, of hitting a target with AT then blasting them with Disintegrate with that 120% additional damage boost. After 6 seconds, you'd hit them again with AT and proceed with Dis.
I have yet to work out the numbers in terms of how much damage you can do over X amount of seconds, but I value your suggestion to add Arcane Torrent to the rotation. Let me work something out. Let me pose this question to you, because this is where I was having difficulty:
Hit enemy for a quick second with AT gives them %120 damage. WHat if you continue hitting them with AT? Does the 6-second timer expire? or stay forever 120% damage boosted as long as you AP can support AT casting?
Oh wow. Look at these fun numbers. If you've read any of my other posts both here and other threads, you notice this *looks like its the best DPS combination (that I've found SO FAR)
-12.5 Regeneration rate plus 2 from Astral Presence and 20AP to pool = 120AP & 14.5 regeneration rate
-Gl.Cannon and Familiar Crimson - 60% damage increase
-Storm Armor - 7 AP reduction is skill costs
-40 second time period.
-Using Arcane Torrent and Disintegrate. (I'm bowing down to this combo)
-Method - Hit target with Arcane Torrent-Crimson. Then cast Disintegrate-Crimson on them for 6 seconds to take advantage of the 120% dmg increase. *Note, with this setup, your AP pool never dips below the starting amount of 120. Its a constant 120 AP available for the entirety of the session.
Over 40 seconds, you can do - 26634.88 damage.
VERY impressive. My self-proclaimed highest-damage/sec Ray of Frost build is weeping somewhere right now.
Concerning your comment about including AT to the rotation, RoF was used until AP was exhausted, then MM was utilized to recoup all AP. At the end of that RoF exhaustion, thats it. I have no AP to even cast AT.
UNLESS, you were taking advantage of Storm Armor-Golden's 7 AP reduction in skill costs. IMO, this is probably has the highest DPS over any time period. I keep discovering new things!
Now at the end of the day, I'll discover something else beats this. ha
I have no video or Blue post to back this up, but I am certain that if you maintain Arc Torrent, you will maintain the 120% debuff. Personally, I am at the moment leaning toward a http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#kRShgO!ZbV!ZaZZbZ build for that reason; I don't expect you will be able to gain much from swapping into Disintegrate for up to 5 seconds, esp since it will have a ramp-up time (which I think we can assume will be at *best* 1.5 sec a la Ray of Frost, but may be slower), and since that will possibly require a careful timing of spell switching to avoid spending extra AP/sec during the switch, or losing out on some of your damage for that sec.
Note: a 1:6 (or 1:5) Arc Torrent:Disintegrate rotation is probably going to be very sensitive to the exact cast time and buff placement/counting/tracking mechanics. Whether you can pull off 1:6 rather than 1:5, or whether you can even cheese out something greater by taking advantage of timing like 1:6.5 or 1:7 will be very sensitive, and is likely to change from one patch to another if it affects any of these attributes.
I have no video or Blue post to back this up, but I am certain that if you maintain Arc Torrent, you will maintain the 120% debuff. Personally, I am at the moment leaning toward a http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#kRShgO!ZbV!ZaZZbZ build for that reason; I don't expect you will be able to gain much from swapping into Disintegrate for up to 5 seconds, esp since it will have a ramp-up time (which I think we can assume will be at *best* 1.5 sec a la Ray of Frost, but may be slower), and since that will possibly require a careful timing of spell switching to avoid spending extra AP/sec during the switch, or losing out on some of your damage for that sec.
Note: a 1:6 (or 1:5) Arc Torrent:Disintegrate rotation is probably going to be very sensitive to the exact cast time and buff placement/counting/tracking mechanics. Whether you can pull off 1:6 rather than 1:5, or whether you can even cheese out something greater by taking advantage of timing like 1:6.5 or 1:7 will be very sensitive, and is likely to change from one patch to another if it affects any of these attributes.
I don't know how often Hydra will shoot, so I can't give you any numbers. I do know that if you switched Hydra with RoF-Crimson, used that until exhaustion,then held down Arcane Torrent-Crimson on an enemy, that for 40 seconds you would do ~21890.56 damage.
EDIT : I watched a video of Hydra. It got off 12 missles in 9 seconds. For best case scenario, lets assume all 12 of these missiles hit.
I crunched some numbers:
Over that same 40 second time period, you can cast Hydra twice, and the rest if mainly damage from AT-Crimson.
You'll do ~20805.12 damage
Ya it was me and I also said Disintegrate would do more damage than Meteor in the same amount of time (4 seconds) which some people thought was so great.... Disintegrate will do higher damage than meteor, so Rof Frost will do more damage than meteor, easily.... That is why I'm doing this build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#aSUVgj!WVX!ZZZYbZ It'll have the massive damage of RoF, with the high piercing damage of disintegrate. I was going to go with Arcane Torrent, but you get Frost nova so early that I just have to switch and go with DK on that.
No temporal flux needed: I got slow time and RoF
No Glass cannon: again: slow time (but with crimson) and Frost Nova
No illusionist: Diamond skin with evocation = constant diamond skin.
No Energy Twister needed
No Meteor needed
No Arcane Orb needed
No Hydra (nothing personal)
No Blizzard needed (though I like the Alabaster spell a lot)
No arcane familiar or damage familiar needed.
No Mirror Images needed: Even Mirror Mimic, it may do 140% damage increase for 15 seconds if they live, but Slow time and frost nova have it covered on percent damage, as they do glass cannon.
No Power Hungry needed.
No Prodigy needed, (seems like everything with this name just dies :)?
I may debate on disintegrate with crimson/alabaster but my general practice I think will be Diamond skin at start of fight, Frost Nova, 360 degree disintegrate, and maybe Frost Nova again, and disintegrate again, then whatever high level monster is left, slow time, frost nova, r of frost.
If having two ray spells is wrong, I don't want to be right! I'm sure you can kill with Meteor Blizzard combo etc. but RoF/Disintegrate/AT/FN do it better and safer than burning your energy armor with high arcane power spells.
I want to try Pinpoint barrier with disintegrate, if anyone knows basic chance to do critical damage then I'd be able to figure out if the 40 percent of pinpoint is worth it...?
Familiar + GC for +60% dmg,
Astral Presence for bonus AP and AP regen.
Storm armor for lowered costs.
Open with 1 hydra, get target in range of frost nova, Arcane Torrent, Frost Nova ("enemies take 110% more damage while frozen or chilled by Frost Nova"), Disintegrate.
Is this sustainable?
WTB damage calculator or simulator.
Anyway, thanks for the maths!
edit: what if we assume 1 hydra attack per second? if its anything like the arcane enchanted mobs the rate will likely be higher.
You got some stones, I'll give you that, I wouldn't have thought of not even using the third passive slot.... For the sake of damage (not mentioning that you might like hydra for fun, which I might like it too) I'd say delete the hydra and add Slow time, crimson..... if all that stuff stacked... you'd be a feared man, fragile... but feared.
Hmmmm, so far I have been doing straight up damage/sec to one target to give us some starting base line of "this combination does more damage' and 'this combination is more sustainable' blah blah blah.
Playing out scenarios?...like hit'em with Frost Nova, lay down a Hydra, use Arcane Torrent-Crimson...
Thats very, very hard to work out. I've been trying to think of an accurate, reliable way to depict that. Its hard, because I can hit a like 3 keyboard buttons in 1 sec, so I can cast Hydra, Frost Nova, or another spell in 1 second. But does everyone have that reaction time? Will everyone play as frantic as I do? (banging keyboard/twitchy/animated)
I just don't know those things. Maybe I'll throw something together. But I will be up front with you, the result of a session like that will vary between player!
To oneoftheorder :
I watched a video of Hydra. It got off 12 missles in 9 seconds. For best case scenario, lets assume all 12 of these missiles hit.
I crunched some numbers:
Over that same 40 second time period, you can cast Hydra once, and the rest if mainly damage from AT-Crimson. You can only cast once because you have base AP pool of 100 without Astral Presence. Again, this is sustained casting over 40 seconds. You could stop and wait to fill up on AP to use Hydra again, but Hydra (with AT-Crimson dmg boost) does ~967.68 damage over its 9 second life. You do 4354.56 damage with AT-Crimson alone in that same 9 seconds. It wouldn't be worth it to wait to recast Hydra. Anyway, these are you numbers for 40 seconds-
You'll do ~20321.28 damage
I understand, by the looks of it, you appreciate a little battlefield control? You chose Temporal Flux as a passive to slow down enemies when you damage them with Arcane.
I would, if you wanted, run some damage numbers on a build that utilized Astral Presence instead of Temp Flux.
I'm just going to provide one of the many explanations why you can't compare Meteor to Disintegrate:
Circle AoE vs Line.
To blindly claim that Disintegrate is superior to Meteor based off base damage numbers of the spell is naive. Are there some cases Disintegrate is going to do more damage? Sure. The reverse is true as well.
Hyrda is in the Beta (Arcane Enchanted monsters spawn Alabaster Hydra) and it attacks disgustingly fast and seems to be the lead cause of deaths in the beta (AKA it's the only thing I've seen streamers die to).
Spells have trade-offs. Look at the Sig Spells. Shock Pulse does the most damage of the 4 of them because you have no control over it. You shoot out the bolts and hope they hit something. Now you can increase the chance of that by getting closer to the enemy, but you have to remember the Wizard is the most frail of the 5 classes. Trade off. The tradeoff for Disintegrate, Ray of Frost, and Arcane Torrent is that you have to stand in place to channel. Yes they do a lot of damage, but they also make you extremely vulnerable at the same time.
As I keep saying: channel builds are great for non-Hardcore multiplayer.
They are both options to choose one or the other or something better, both use arcane power, and both of these use runes, that's how we can compare them.....
Blizzard made monsters walk in straight lines to their target don't blame us, blame the system, the deck is dealt in disintegrate's favor.
Yeah, modelling player behavior is very difficult. I used to play a warrior in WoW and there is an extensive and incredibly impressive DPS spreadsheet done by a member of the EJ community for that class. If you look under the hood of it at all you see how much has to be accounted for.
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2 things:
1- Casting a signature spell every second is a far too high rate. this would preclude casting your damaging spells as it does not seem that you can do 2 things at once. I.E. at any given instant, you can only case 1 spell, so you must choose between a signature spell and an offensive/utility spell. This leads to a "weave" sequence aside from the start of a fight where you have full AP. For instance, assuming you start at 60 AP (for simplicity's sake) you could do 1 hydra then x signature spells (with AP regen effects) until you have 60 AP again, then repeat. If you use a channel or low-cost offensive spell, the amount of signature spell casting will be vastly less.
2- Prodigy sounds like an on-cast proc, rather than an on-hit proc. I would interpret the passive to give you 5 energy regardless of the number of targets hit by the signature spell. All the non-magic missile signature spells yellow rune's proc energy gain on-hit, and so electrocute and shock pulse could regen 7, 14, or 21 AP depending on targets, and spectral blade would do 7x targets hit (with the 3x hit per cast, i don't think those 3 hits count as three actual hits; they may but that would make SB far and away the best AP regen ability).
On with the math!
I think Prodigy is on-proc, not on hit, but need confirmation on this. Which means if you do use it as AP regen, only, you don't even need to bother aiming. Just click click click to get AP and cast your dmg spell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13-3BJBaFNI
And here, again, is Shock Pulse being spammed right at 1/sec. Start at 0:40 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IegSDRqb-fA
Yea, those figures I put up are using that same 'scheme' you suggested. All AP is exhausted, then regenerated by Sig spells, then repeat. Over a certain time period I can total up the damages to see which method/rune is more effective.
I think that for net dps, crimson Familiar will (clearly?) always beat golden. Consider dam/min efficiency:
60sec * 12.5AP/sec (base regen) = 750AP/min
750AP * 1.4 (crim Fam modifier) = 1050 AP-worth of damage
vs
750AP + 270AP = 1020 AP-worth of damage
(note: Astral Presence will shift this further in favor of crimson Familiar.)
I cannot yet see any scenario in which this logic will not hold; furthermore, in many cases, you will have forced down time due to running away or whatever other reason, meaning that some of the additional golden Familiar regen will go to waste, whereas crimson Familiar never goes to waste, only your base regen might. I can only see golden Familiar being superior if you wish to have the added utility of more AP; this may make sense, for example, on HC, where you probably never want to be totally out of AP, whether it boosts your dps or not.
Having a larger AP pool will, I think, not be as useful as more regen, in general. However, if you use a build which intends to "pump" with a Sig spell and "purge" with a high-cost spell, it may be very useful, as it can allow you to sustain phases of that cycle for longer periods of time. Depending on the situation, that may or may not lead to a dps bump.
Also, DKR, I believe AT Crimson debuff needs to be in the rotation, as it seems to be quite a big buff to damage, but only arcane. Does AT need to be cast before MM spam, since it will increase that damage by 20%, and does this make MM better than the other sig spells?
There is much math to be done...
On a flip side of that, Electrocute says it can jump, hitting "up to [2] enemies;" if we go by that wording, it is not saying it jump to 2 enemies after the first for a total of 3 hits, but that it hits a total of 2 enemies. If you can hit with all of them, I think Shock Pulse is going to be better (assuming golden runes), and if there are more than 3 to hit and you're willing to get up close, golden Spectral Blade will probably take the cake.
Personally, I think I will prefer the consistency of a golden-runed MM, since you will get your 14AP whether there is one creature or many.
Yah, I brought this up in another post, but Electrocute does actually hit 3 targets. Someone had a great video of the beta showing it (no runes in beta so it must be base effect).
You know what hasn't be said since the D3 calculator arose?
"there's no build customization!"
Look at us debate and discuss damage vs regen vs diverse utility skills. Badass!
I think it was ElectricEel (i think) that brought up, or at least gave me the thought, of hitting a target with AT then blasting them with Disintegrate with that 120% additional damage boost. After 6 seconds, you'd hit them again with AT and proceed with Dis.
I have yet to work out the numbers in terms of how much damage you can do over X amount of seconds, but I value your suggestion to add Arcane Torrent to the rotation. Let me work something out. Let me pose this question to you, because this is where I was having difficulty:
Hit enemy for a quick second with AT gives them %120 damage. WHat if you continue hitting them with AT? Does the 6-second timer expire? or stay forever 120% damage boosted as long as you AP can support AT casting?
-12.5 Regeneration rate plus 2 from Astral Presence and 20AP to pool = 120AP & 14.5 regeneration rate
-Gl.Cannon and Familiar Crimson - 60% damage increase
-Storm Armor - 7 AP reduction is skill costs
-40 second time period.
-Using Arcane Torrent and Disintegrate. (I'm bowing down to this combo)
-Method - Hit target with Arcane Torrent-Crimson. Then cast Disintegrate-Crimson on them for 6 seconds to take advantage of the 120% dmg increase. *Note, with this setup, your AP pool never dips below the starting amount of 120. Its a constant 120 AP available for the entirety of the session.
Over 40 seconds, you can do - 26634.88 damage.
VERY impressive. My self-proclaimed highest-damage/sec Ray of Frost build is weeping somewhere right now.
Concerning your comment about including AT to the rotation, RoF was used until AP was exhausted, then MM was utilized to recoup all AP. At the end of that RoF exhaustion, thats it. I have no AP to even cast AT.
UNLESS, you were taking advantage of Storm Armor-Golden's 7 AP reduction in skill costs. IMO, this is probably has the highest DPS over any time period. I keep discovering new things!
Now at the end of the day, I'll discover something else beats this. ha
The probably less-optimal, but more-fun builds I may go for are really only slight variants of that: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#URShgO!ZbV!ZbZZbZ, or this with something (probably Slow Time) swapped for golden MM.
Note: a 1:6 (or 1:5) Arc Torrent:Disintegrate rotation is probably going to be very sensitive to the exact cast time and buff placement/counting/tracking mechanics. Whether you can pull off 1:6 rather than 1:5, or whether you can even cheese out something greater by taking advantage of timing like 1:6.5 or 1:7 will be very sensitive, and is likely to change from one patch to another if it affects any of these attributes.
I don't know how often Hydra will shoot, so I can't give you any numbers. I do know that if you switched Hydra with RoF-Crimson, used that until exhaustion,then held down Arcane Torrent-Crimson on an enemy, that for 40 seconds you would do ~21890.56 damage.
EDIT : I watched a video of Hydra. It got off 12 missles in 9 seconds. For best case scenario, lets assume all 12 of these missiles hit.
I crunched some numbers:
Over that same 40 second time period, you can cast Hydra twice, and the rest if mainly damage from AT-Crimson.
You'll do ~20805.12 damage
No temporal flux needed: I got slow time and RoF
No Glass cannon: again: slow time (but with crimson) and Frost Nova
No illusionist: Diamond skin with evocation = constant diamond skin.
No Energy Twister needed
No Meteor needed
No Arcane Orb needed
No Hydra (nothing personal)
No Blizzard needed (though I like the Alabaster spell a lot)
No arcane familiar or damage familiar needed.
No Mirror Images needed: Even Mirror Mimic, it may do 140% damage increase for 15 seconds if they live, but Slow time and frost nova have it covered on percent damage, as they do glass cannon.
No Power Hungry needed.
No Prodigy needed, (seems like everything with this name just dies :)?
I may debate on disintegrate with crimson/alabaster but my general practice I think will be Diamond skin at start of fight, Frost Nova, 360 degree disintegrate, and maybe Frost Nova again, and disintegrate again, then whatever high level monster is left, slow time, frost nova, r of frost.
If having two ray spells is wrong, I don't want to be right! I'm sure you can kill with Meteor Blizzard combo etc. but RoF/Disintegrate/AT/FN do it better and safer than burning your energy armor with high arcane power spells.
I want to try Pinpoint barrier with disintegrate, if anyone knows basic chance to do critical damage then I'd be able to figure out if the 40 percent of pinpoint is worth it...?
::looks at avatar::
Terrible, revolting pun! (+1)
In an attempt to give you more work, have you included the damage boost from runed frost nova in any calculations?
Some build like this perhaps?
Familiar + GC for +60% dmg,
Astral Presence for bonus AP and AP regen.
Storm armor for lowered costs.
Open with 1 hydra, get target in range of frost nova, Arcane Torrent, Frost Nova ("enemies take 110% more damage while frozen or chilled by Frost Nova"), Disintegrate.
Is this sustainable?
WTB damage calculator or simulator.
Anyway, thanks for the maths!
edit: what if we assume 1 hydra attack per second? if its anything like the arcane enchanted mobs the rate will likely be higher.
Playing out scenarios?...like hit'em with Frost Nova, lay down a Hydra, use Arcane Torrent-Crimson...
Thats very, very hard to work out. I've been trying to think of an accurate, reliable way to depict that. Its hard, because I can hit a like 3 keyboard buttons in 1 sec, so I can cast Hydra, Frost Nova, or another spell in 1 second. But does everyone have that reaction time? Will everyone play as frantic as I do? (banging keyboard/twitchy/animated)
I just don't know those things. Maybe I'll throw something together. But I will be up front with you, the result of a session like that will vary between player!
To oneoftheorder :
I watched a video of Hydra. It got off 12 missles in 9 seconds. For best case scenario, lets assume all 12 of these missiles hit.
I crunched some numbers:
Over that same 40 second time period, you can cast Hydra once, and the rest if mainly damage from AT-Crimson. You can only cast once because you have base AP pool of 100 without Astral Presence. Again, this is sustained casting over 40 seconds. You could stop and wait to fill up on AP to use Hydra again, but Hydra (with AT-Crimson dmg boost) does ~967.68 damage over its 9 second life. You do 4354.56 damage with AT-Crimson alone in that same 9 seconds. It wouldn't be worth it to wait to recast Hydra. Anyway, these are you numbers for 40 seconds-
You'll do ~20321.28 damage
I understand, by the looks of it, you appreciate a little battlefield control? You chose Temporal Flux as a passive to slow down enemies when you damage them with Arcane.
I would, if you wanted, run some damage numbers on a build that utilized Astral Presence instead of Temp Flux.
Circle AoE vs Line.
To blindly claim that Disintegrate is superior to Meteor based off base damage numbers of the spell is naive. Are there some cases Disintegrate is going to do more damage? Sure. The reverse is true as well.
Hyrda is in the Beta (Arcane Enchanted monsters spawn Alabaster Hydra) and it attacks disgustingly fast and seems to be the lead cause of deaths in the beta (AKA it's the only thing I've seen streamers die to).
Spells have trade-offs. Look at the Sig Spells. Shock Pulse does the most damage of the 4 of them because you have no control over it. You shoot out the bolts and hope they hit something. Now you can increase the chance of that by getting closer to the enemy, but you have to remember the Wizard is the most frail of the 5 classes. Trade off. The tradeoff for Disintegrate, Ray of Frost, and Arcane Torrent is that you have to stand in place to channel. Yes they do a lot of damage, but they also make you extremely vulnerable at the same time.
As I keep saying: channel builds are great for non-Hardcore multiplayer.
Blizzard made monsters walk in straight lines to their target don't blame us, blame the system, the deck is dealt in disintegrate's favor.
Yeah, modelling player behavior is very difficult. I used to play a warrior in WoW and there is an extensive and incredibly impressive DPS spreadsheet done by a member of the EJ community for that class. If you look under the hood of it at all you see how much has to be accounted for.