So there's been a lot of builds going up over the last few days, but so far I haven't seen any designed towards hardcore mode. Now, I know my first character certainly won't be Hardcore since I want to learn the game first, but I know that I'm going to be playing a Hardcore Wizard at some point. Here's what I've come up with:
Stat wise you want to focus on 1). Life 2). Defense 3). Attack
The build is really built around the first 2 spells. The combination of Force Armor and Ancient Guardian should hopefully make it so that no matter what you can't die. A potential issue with this is the wording of Ancient Guardian: "8 attacks directed at you" is not "8 attacks that hit you". This would mean that if there are 8 skeleton archers on screen and they all fire at you, even if none of the arrows actually hit, your familiar would be consumed. As a result you'd be recasting Familiar a lot more than would likely be reasonable. It takes 2 Magic Missiles per Familiar, as long as that is maintainable things should be okay.
Energy Armor is also the best defensive armor spell. Ice Armor gives armor which only reduces physical damage, Energy Armor increases your Defense stat. For those not aware, Defense is a flat % reduction to damage you take, both physical and elemental.
Teleport with Safe Passage seems fairly obvious. Not only do you need a way to get out when there's unexpected danger, the damage reduction is fantastic.
Magic Missile also seems pretty mandatory. (The AP from Astral Presence will cancel out with the negative AP form Energy Armor so you're left with the base 100 AP.) You're going to need some form of AP regeneration both for your damaging spells as well as the mandatory maintenance of Familiar. Magic Missile gives you 14 AP a cast and easily has the longest range of any Signature spell. (Question: Could this be replaced by swapping out Blur with Virtuoso? What is an unsuccessful wand attack? How fast do wands attack? If wands can attack once a second this ends up being a better source of AP generation, and you also get that 1% life regen which is far better than Galvanizing Wards regen. Seems like only an option for build 1.)
So 2 slots left. Here I'm not positive on what to do. Obviously staying alive isn't enough, we need to be able to actually kill things as well. I expect a fair amount of Magic Missile spam to keep AP up, but that's not going to be enough damage. We also need some form of slow to try and keep enemies away from us. This is where the 2 builds diverge.
The first goes with Crimson runed Mirror Image to both provide a bit more defense as well as some much needed damage output. Assuming that the images cast fairly often this seems worth it. An Alabaster runed Blizzard provides a high chance to freeze as well almost guaranteed critical hits which means higher damage. (Anyone know the % increase for a spell critical?)
The second build changes things up a little and uses Arcane damage from Magic Missile, Disintegrate, and Arcane Torrent to keep enemies slowed and away from you. The Crimson rune in Torrent synergizes nicely with the other 2 spells greatly increasing your damage output.
Right now I think I like the second build a bit more.
What do you guys think? Have you come up with any Hardcore builds?
Energy Armor(Obsidian) -> Frost Nova(Golden)
I think the control the wizards gets with a 5sec cooldown Frost Novais superior to the defense and proc of the Energy armor, as we dont have anything else but the Temporal Flux slow to immobilize our enemies.
Disintegrate(Alabaster) -> Hydra(Alabaster)
We already have one channeled spell, Arcane Torrent, so having another one means we'll stay still far too much time. Hydra with Alabaster rune works well with Arcane torrent and at the same time give us freedom to move around, and even shot without line of sight.
About the passives, Temporal Flux is a must and Astral Presence allow us to cast 2 hydras at the start of any fight. The third one can be Prodigy (to regen AP even without line of sight of any enemy), Unstable Anomaly, Blur or Illusionist.
What do you think of those changes?
I put in Energy Armor Obsidian to aim for the goal of being impossible to kill. Your Familiar keeps you from dying 25% and below, the armor makes sure that a massive hit at 30% or so wont kill you before the Familiar can kick in. With the 2 spells, the only way you should be able to die is if you're at exactly 26.0% (unlikely) and you take a hit for that much damage. I agree Frost Nova would provide more control, but remember, 1 death and everything is over. However, if my fear about Ancient Guardian is true and it's attacks aimed at you and not that actually hit you getting Frost Nova into the build would likely be required. We also need to find out if Force Armor is realistic (aka how hard do enemies actually hit, and how much life do you have).
I like your Hydra change. I wasn't really planning on using Disintegrate as a main damage source, but more of a quick 360 degree spin to slow everything on screen and also to use to finish off weakened enemies from Torrent (to proc explosions). I'd run both to test, but Hydra would work very well I think. The only issue is the 60 AP.
Passive wise I agree except for Prodigy. 14 a Magic Missile seems like it should be enough, boosting that to 19 doesn't seem as worth it considering the strength of the other passives. I'd swap Prodigy out in that list for Virtuoso. If there are wands that attack once a second then the passive could be the source of AP regen freeing up the Magic Missile slot for something else.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#QOiZhl!dXe!cacbZa
or
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#QOiZUk!dXZ!cacbaZ
Stat wise you want to focus on 1). Life 2). Defense 3). Attack
The build is really built around the first 2 spells. The combination of Force Armor and Ancient Guardian should hopefully make it so that no matter what you can't die. A potential issue with this is the wording of Ancient Guardian: "8 attacks directed at you" is not "8 attacks that hit you". This would mean that if there are 8 skeleton archers on screen and they all fire at you, even if none of the arrows actually hit, your familiar would be consumed. As a result you'd be recasting Familiar a lot more than would likely be reasonable. It takes 2 Magic Missiles per Familiar, as long as that is maintainable things should be okay.
Energy Armor is also the best defensive armor spell. Ice Armor gives armor which only reduces physical damage, Energy Armor increases your Defense stat. For those not aware, Defense is a flat % reduction to damage you take, both physical and elemental.
Teleport with Safe Passage seems fairly obvious. Not only do you need a way to get out when there's unexpected danger, the damage reduction is fantastic.
Magic Missile also seems pretty mandatory. (The AP from Astral Presence will cancel out with the negative AP form Energy Armor so you're left with the base 100 AP.) You're going to need some form of AP regeneration both for your damaging spells as well as the mandatory maintenance of Familiar. Magic Missile gives you 14 AP a cast and easily has the longest range of any Signature spell. (Question: Could this be replaced by swapping out Blur with Virtuoso? What is an unsuccessful wand attack? How fast do wands attack? If wands can attack once a second this ends up being a better source of AP generation, and you also get that 1% life regen which is far better than Galvanizing Wards regen. Seems like only an option for build 1.)
So 2 slots left. Here I'm not positive on what to do. Obviously staying alive isn't enough, we need to be able to actually kill things as well. I expect a fair amount of Magic Missile spam to keep AP up, but that's not going to be enough damage. We also need some form of slow to try and keep enemies away from us. This is where the 2 builds diverge.
The first goes with Crimson runed Mirror Image to both provide a bit more defense as well as some much needed damage output. Assuming that the images cast fairly often this seems worth it. An Alabaster runed Blizzard provides a high chance to freeze as well almost guaranteed critical hits which means higher damage. (Anyone know the % increase for a spell critical?)
The second build changes things up a little and uses Arcane damage from Magic Missile, Disintegrate, and Arcane Torrent to keep enemies slowed and away from you. The Crimson rune in Torrent synergizes nicely with the other 2 spells greatly increasing your damage output.
Right now I think I like the second build a bit more.
What do you guys think? Have you come up with any Hardcore builds?
I put in Energy Armor Obsidian to aim for the goal of being impossible to kill. Your Familiar keeps you from dying 25% and below, the armor makes sure that a massive hit at 30% or so wont kill you before the Familiar can kick in. With the 2 spells, the only way you should be able to die is if you're at exactly 26.0% (unlikely) and you take a hit for that much damage. I agree Frost Nova would provide more control, but remember, 1 death and everything is over. However, if my fear about Ancient Guardian is true and it's attacks aimed at you and not that actually hit you getting Frost Nova into the build would likely be required. We also need to find out if Force Armor is realistic (aka how hard do enemies actually hit, and how much life do you have).
I like your Hydra change. I wasn't really planning on using Disintegrate as a main damage source, but more of a quick 360 degree spin to slow everything on screen and also to use to finish off weakened enemies from Torrent (to proc explosions). I'd run both to test, but Hydra would work very well I think. The only issue is the 60 AP.
Passive wise I agree except for Prodigy. 14 a Magic Missile seems like it should be enough, boosting that to 19 doesn't seem as worth it considering the strength of the other passives. I'd swap Prodigy out in that list for Virtuoso. If there are wands that attack once a second then the passive could be the source of AP regen freeing up the Magic Missile slot for something else.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#W!V!a