It depends on if you are using a fast weapon with lower DPS and IAS, or a slow high dps weapon with low IAS. The first will benefit the familiar, as it is a flat damage increase. The second will benefit magic weapon, as it increases specifically your weapon damage.
I have built a gold find set: 280 gold find / 30k dps / 500 res all / 28k hp. Farming act 1 with this gold find set is INCREDIBLY profitable. I highly recommend trying to invest in a good set and doing cursed hold with it. You will easily get 300-400k gold in an hour, not to mention all of the items that drop. Pickup radius is also necessary for efficiency. The larger the radius, the better.
I'm a big proponent of the 1h-er with a high block rate / high crit sacred shield. Being able to play inferno without having to play perfectly is much less stressful than you glass cannon types.
Crit is also VERY powerful with high arcane on crit (giving you infinite power if you have high enough crit) and critical mass. These things aren't reflected on the DPS number sheet, but trust me, they can easily double your damage.
I am pretty much at the same amount of ASP (1,3), crit chance and event bigger crit dmg (319)... would love to give a try melee wizz after nerf, so I am curious how much resist I need for act 3/4 farm.
Self-buffed, I have 1k resistances, 9k armor, 42k hp. However, in the interest of transparency, I should point out that while I can clear act 3/4 without dieing, I would rather farm act 2 with this build because it is much more efficient because I can bypass normal monsters and focus on just hunting elites. I need to up my DPS to farm act 3 efficiently.
As the OP has pointed out, there is a difference between being able to complete an act and being able to farm it effectively.
With such high crit, I guarantee you'll love critical mass if you use meteor, diamond skin, ice nova, force wave, spectral blade:deep cuts, and energy armor.
Edit: Forgot to mention current act. I have cleared all the way to inferno Diablo with this build. Haven't beat him yet.
I'd be interested to know what your dps/aps is with that much armor and resist, seems rather hard to get really high intel gear with decent resists.
My build at the moment is heavily reliant on crits, so crit dmg, crit chance and aps, finding gear with, high crit affixes, high resist and high intel is nearly impossible, but that is a good thing else everyone would be godzilla'ing Inferno.
Ok so... My method is unconventional. I have 0 attack speed upgrades. 1.2 APS. I am a melee wizard tank with 42% crit with 250% crit damage and 20k dps. There are several things that turn that measly 20k dps much higher than you'd think though. I have alot of arcane on crit, giving me unending arcane power when fighting more than 3 enemies. I also use a critical mass build and abilities with high proc rate (meteor: star pact and spectral blade : deep cuts) that allows me to use my wave of force 260% dmg rune almost every few seconds when fighting packs (This does devastating damage to a huge area). I also remain relatively stationary (besides dodging sentries, etc) so I am able to DPS most of the time instead of running. In addition, I use the ice nova run that increases damage by 20% when frozen, and because of my crit rate and critical mass, I can perma-freeze normal enemies, and constantly keep elite packs stuttering so I can easily avoid damage and stuff on the ground.
So, ironically, the larger the group of enemies, the more damage and shielding I can do. I love illusion elites.
Its quite fun, but it requires very specialized gear.
I can confirm that it does indeed get better. I took an alternate route than the OP did, stacking tons of resists and armor (1k res, 9k armor). I now can run around act 2 bypassing normal monsters as they tickle me, hunting down elite packs after gathering 5 stacks.
My new farming strategy involves lazily jogging while little monsters scurry around me, until I find an elite pack. I no longer have the dread feeling in my gut when I see invuln, arcane, jailer, frozen. I smash them, and all the monsters that followed me in a train, and move on to the next one. The changes in 1.03 make this strategy very profitable.
I no longer die (I know this sounds like an exaggeration, but I ran act 3 heart of sin today from the beginning to azmodan, including cydea, and died only once, and I had all kinds of horrible combos, none of which I skipped). I feel incredibly powerful now, when a few weeks ago, I was smashing my head against the keyboard like many of you are.
Once you get the gear, inferno can be quite a relaxing and enjoyable experience. Having suffered so much previously gives a real sense of progression when you finally get the stats that click with your spec and strategy, and you find what once seemed impossible to be easy.
I was barely tanking act 3 elites before and now, after the patch, I am able to tank act 3 and 4 elites without any issues. The patch drastically changed the damage the enemies deal and it makes a huge difference. This patch has made melee viable.
18k dps sounds fairly nice to be honest, since barbs have around 11k and still manage to play...
that is if you REALLY can stand face to face...gonna try this shit out, to me it sounds much better than running around like tard for X mins, then do 1 (ONE) mistake in glass cannon build...BAM...mobs heal to full and do it all over again
You can definitely stand face to face. But, be aware, that much like Barbs or Monks, melee wizards are very gear dependent, and it is going to cost you quite a bit to gear up for it. Focus on Resistances, crit / crit damage, vit, and int. In that order.
can i ask you about your dps? just out of curiosity...no bashing intended
I currently have 18k DPS. Fairly low, but considering I stand still, can spam meteors and explosive blast (due to arcane on crit) I'm fairly sure that my 18k is considerably more than a standard wizard's 18k, where they spend half their time running away.
Also, Agreed Proxy. Everyone needs to step away from arcane, frozen, molten, etc, even standard melee classes. That doesn't mean barbs and monks are "kiting" if they avoid unnecessary damage.
See, this is why I've been saying a Melee wizard isn't viable in Inferno all along. If your using things like blizzard or meteor, or arcane orb, (unless its the orbit rune) then it's not a melee wizard. Simply using spectral blade does not make you a melee wizard.
I am a melee wizard currently face-tanking act 3 inferno. I can confirm that it is most definitely viable in inferno. And no, I do not kite or use blizzard, arcane orb.
Meteor is necessary in conjunction with spectral blade because of it's ability to have the dot's crit, and the high life on hit and critical mass proc coefficient (but i cast it in front of me, not at range). I am at the point gear-wise where I do not take damage in act 1 or 2 unless it is a particularly brutal elite combo (and even then, I can survive and kill them without kiting).
In order to comfortably tank act 3, I have self buffed: between 1k and 1.2k resistances depending on resistance, 8.5k armor, 42% crit, 1k LoH, 10 arcane on crit, 40k hp, 20% with 4700 block and some melee and elite damage reduction. After 1.03 these requirements wont be as strict.
I use explosive blast, ice nova, diamond skin, meteor, spectral blade, and prismatic armor. Blur, Evocation, and Critical Mass.
Would you mind posting your stats/build? I'm kind of interested in a build which is capable of staying somewhat more stationary without sacrificing all of my DPS. I simply lack the gear in general to go for anything but kiting atm.
Also, I think not using FA was kind of implied in your post. I do assume you're using energy armor with the prismatic rune. Maybe the problem is not that FA is completely mandatory, but that it's a simple choice between the force armor and prismatic rune. Which doesn't promote game diversity at all.
I'm a bit too lazy to photoshop together my gear, but I am currently at 35k hp, 1k resistances, 20k DPS, 20% block with 4700 block, 8k armor, 40% crit, 250% crit dmg, 1k LoH, and some melee and elite damage reduction, and most of my gear was bought for less than 1 million a piece (its amazing what people post items for if you are looking).
I use critical mass in conjunction with meteor and spectral blade to chain cast ice nova, diamond skin, and explosive blast. Blur, evocation also used. And Prismatic Armor, as you said.
20k may sound like very small dps, but with 10 arcane on crit, and staying stationary, I can spam meteors and explosive blast and I suspect that is just as much, if not more damage than much higher DPS kiting builds where you are forced to spend half your time running.
I agree with the lack of build diversity in inferno right now in terms of armor spells, but blizzard has stated that this is something they are working on fixing so we'll see how that evolves.
We can't get anywhere near melee range because we just fall over and die, regardless of whether or not we stack res and vit. So, our only choice is to do a lot of damage and run away, dying often in the process. Trust me, that's not fun for us either.
I feel compelled to refute this point. Vitality and defensive stats are very important and effective. It is very possible to tank as a wizard. I am currently tanking act 3 as a melee wizard, and act 1 and 2 do nothing more than tickle me (yes, I am face-tanking, no kiting, except for arcane sentry dodging). Making sweeping statements about defensive stats being useless isn't very accurate.
edit : Also, I should mention that I do not use force armor.
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Edit : that 280% is without any stacks, btw
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Crit is also VERY powerful with high arcane on crit (giving you infinite power if you have high enough crit) and critical mass. These things aren't reflected on the DPS number sheet, but trust me, they can easily double your damage.
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Self-buffed, I have 1k resistances, 9k armor, 42k hp. However, in the interest of transparency, I should point out that while I can clear act 3/4 without dieing, I would rather farm act 2 with this build because it is much more efficient because I can bypass normal monsters and focus on just hunting elites. I need to up my DPS to farm act 3 efficiently.
As the OP has pointed out, there is a difference between being able to complete an act and being able to farm it effectively.
With such high crit, I guarantee you'll love critical mass if you use meteor, diamond skin, ice nova, force wave, spectral blade:deep cuts, and energy armor.
Edit: Forgot to mention current act. I have cleared all the way to inferno Diablo with this build. Haven't beat him yet.
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Ok so... My method is unconventional. I have 0 attack speed upgrades. 1.2 APS. I am a melee wizard tank with 42% crit with 250% crit damage and 20k dps. There are several things that turn that measly 20k dps much higher than you'd think though. I have alot of arcane on crit, giving me unending arcane power when fighting more than 3 enemies. I also use a critical mass build and abilities with high proc rate (meteor: star pact and spectral blade : deep cuts) that allows me to use my wave of force 260% dmg rune almost every few seconds when fighting packs (This does devastating damage to a huge area). I also remain relatively stationary (besides dodging sentries, etc) so I am able to DPS most of the time instead of running. In addition, I use the ice nova run that increases damage by 20% when frozen, and because of my crit rate and critical mass, I can perma-freeze normal enemies, and constantly keep elite packs stuttering so I can easily avoid damage and stuff on the ground.
So, ironically, the larger the group of enemies, the more damage and shielding I can do. I love illusion elites.
Its quite fun, but it requires very specialized gear.
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My new farming strategy involves lazily jogging while little monsters scurry around me, until I find an elite pack. I no longer have the dread feeling in my gut when I see invuln, arcane, jailer, frozen. I smash them, and all the monsters that followed me in a train, and move on to the next one. The changes in 1.03 make this strategy very profitable.
I no longer die (I know this sounds like an exaggeration, but I ran act 3 heart of sin today from the beginning to azmodan, including cydea, and died only once, and I had all kinds of horrible combos, none of which I skipped). I feel incredibly powerful now, when a few weeks ago, I was smashing my head against the keyboard like many of you are.
Once you get the gear, inferno can be quite a relaxing and enjoyable experience. Having suffered so much previously gives a real sense of progression when you finally get the stats that click with your spec and strategy, and you find what once seemed impossible to be easy.
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I got lucky with my finds on the AH.
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I currently have 18k DPS. Fairly low, but considering I stand still, can spam meteors and explosive blast (due to arcane on crit) I'm fairly sure that my 18k is considerably more than a standard wizard's 18k, where they spend half their time running away.
Also, Agreed Proxy. Everyone needs to step away from arcane, frozen, molten, etc, even standard melee classes. That doesn't mean barbs and monks are "kiting" if they avoid unnecessary damage.
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I am a melee wizard currently face-tanking act 3 inferno. I can confirm that it is most definitely viable in inferno. And no, I do not kite or use blizzard, arcane orb.
Meteor is necessary in conjunction with spectral blade because of it's ability to have the dot's crit, and the high life on hit and critical mass proc coefficient (but i cast it in front of me, not at range). I am at the point gear-wise where I do not take damage in act 1 or 2 unless it is a particularly brutal elite combo (and even then, I can survive and kill them without kiting).
In order to comfortably tank act 3, I have self buffed: between 1k and 1.2k resistances depending on resistance, 8.5k armor, 42% crit, 1k LoH, 10 arcane on crit, 40k hp, 20% with 4700 block and some melee and elite damage reduction. After 1.03 these requirements wont be as strict.
I use explosive blast, ice nova, diamond skin, meteor, spectral blade, and prismatic armor. Blur, Evocation, and Critical Mass.
Act 4 still smashes my face in though.
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I'm a bit too lazy to photoshop together my gear, but I am currently at 35k hp, 1k resistances, 20k DPS, 20% block with 4700 block, 8k armor, 40% crit, 250% crit dmg, 1k LoH, and some melee and elite damage reduction, and most of my gear was bought for less than 1 million a piece (its amazing what people post items for if you are looking).
I use critical mass in conjunction with meteor and spectral blade to chain cast ice nova, diamond skin, and explosive blast. Blur, evocation also used. And Prismatic Armor, as you said.
20k may sound like very small dps, but with 10 arcane on crit, and staying stationary, I can spam meteors and explosive blast and I suspect that is just as much, if not more damage than much higher DPS kiting builds where you are forced to spend half your time running.
I agree with the lack of build diversity in inferno right now in terms of armor spells, but blizzard has stated that this is something they are working on fixing so we'll see how that evolves.
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I feel compelled to refute this point. Vitality and defensive stats are very important and effective. It is very possible to tank as a wizard. I am currently tanking act 3 as a melee wizard, and act 1 and 2 do nothing more than tickle me (yes, I am face-tanking, no kiting, except for arcane sentry dodging). Making sweeping statements about defensive stats being useless isn't very accurate.
edit : Also, I should mention that I do not use force armor.