Melee Wizard Inferno [Diablo 3 / Brief Guide] (11 replies to this topic)

Link ;

A video of my Wizard in Inferno including;

- Different Acts
- Bosses
- A brief guide on playing this build
- How I tackle different encounters throughout the game and just a general look at the melee wizard.

I am trying out different programs for recording and also editing. My audio does need improved and I will work on this for my future and upcoming videos.

I will be releasing more videos within the next couple of days including;

- My Build, Gear & Stats
- Elite Packs
- Individual Boss Encounters and In-Depth Tactics

I am open to any suggestions questions and feedback on the video.

Now for a more in-depth written guide.
I wouldn't say I invented this build and I did a lot of research on many different
combinations before deciding to settle with this.

This Melee Wizard build I found to be viable Act1 - end of Act3.

Build; http://eu.battle.net...gYOX!afg!aaZcca

Rotation; Keep Spectral Blade up at all times. Try and time frost nova at the same time you use Meteor for the extra damage. Slow Time for when you need that extra DPS although it goes along well with Diamond Skin when you are struggling.

Skills & Runes;

Spectral Blade - Deep Cuts
Very effective on multiple targets as each hit heals for around 30% per hit per cast.

Meteor - Molten Impact
50% life per hit per target on initial cast and another 25% per tick on the dot. The dot crits have 100% Chance to proc critical mass.

Slow Time - Time Warp
This spell is very strong in a group situation as it not only reduces the enemy AS by 20% and movement by 30% but it also It slows enemy projectiles and increases the damage taken by enemy's by 20%.

Frost Nova - Bone Chill
Again very effective in a group situation, not only does this freeze the mobs but it also increases the damage taken by enemy's by 15%.

Energy Armor - Prismatic Armor
At the time I recorded the clips I was slightly under geared so this one is completely up to yourself, your play style. I personally like to have more resist. However you could go for Pinpoint Barrier for the extra crit.

Diamond Skin - Crystal Shell
People say that this spell is not as effective in Inferno compared to other game modes. However I still stuck by my trusty
Diamond skill to drag me through the acts and it comes in very handy when your taking a large amount of damage.

Passive Skills
Blur- Pretty straight forward decreases melee damage taken by 20%
Galvanizing Ward- Increases the duration of your Energy armor and gives you an extra 310 Life per second.
Critical Mass - Reduces the cool down of your spells by 1% every time you crit.

Now presuming your just starting out with this build id guess you are slightly under geared. Now to sum it up you have a few different ways you can go with this build. I personally started out with around about the following stats;


- 700 All Resists
- 11k Damage
- 700 Life on Hit
- 700 Life Regen
- 15% Block
- 4.2k Armor
- 19% Chance to Crit (Although I ran at around about 12% Act 1-3)
- 122% Crit Damage


Taking into consideration most of the groups I am in we have a Barbarian.
The shout of a Barbarian increases 20% Armor and 50% Resists is a very strong buff to have within a group leading up to act 2-3.

The other obvious way you can go is Slightly less resistance alot more life on hit and around about 30% crit. This would allow your spells to basically always be up. However I have not tried this spec out I would not like to comment to much on it.

Please feel free to ask any questions and feedback is appreciated!
Enjoy & Cheers!

Wynn3r

Edited by Wynn3r, 28 June 2012 - 04:37 PM.

Hello there!

Thank you very much for your contribution. I watched your guide and found it enjoyable and quite well polished.

The suggested build seems quite interesting too. It seems to make the playstyle a bit easier, even if the DPS is lower.

Our request would be that you include, ideally in the first post, some explanations about how to achieve this build. Most importantly, you should try to (at least briefly) cover:

• Skills/talents and runes
  
• Gearing/gemming
  
• "Rotation" or playstyle

We believe this would make your guide even more appealing, since written content has a lot of weight that videos just cannot convey. You will note, when writing a new post, that we have a feature on these forums that allows you to add Diablo III links (complete with icons and tooltips) for all the spells, including for runes! There should be a big red button that says Diablo III in your editor. After that, it should be fairly intuitive to add links.

Thanks again for your contribution and we hope to hear more from you!

Hello Vlad,

The feedback is greatly appreciated! I will update the main post as soon as possible with full links and details.

Wynn3r

That's great! Just bump this thread when you're done or if you have any questions about adding the links!

Nearly finished just the skill links don't seem to work unless I am entering them wrong

It's very simple. You just need to take the skill names from the battle.net page. For example, http://us.battle.net...ve/diamond-skin is the link to Diamond Skin there. Simply click on our Diablo III button, put in the end of the link, namely "diamond-skin" (without quotes) in the field and tick the icon/tooltip box and you're done. It should look like this: Diamond Skin

Sorted cheers!

Hello this is my gear & stats follow up video

Link -
This video provides you with the information on my Build, Spec, Gear and stats.
Keep an eye out for my upcoming videos!

I am open to any suggestions questions and feedback on the video.

Enjoy & Cheers!

Wynn3r

Glad to see you managed with the links. Your first post looks really good now, much easier to read!

I've watched your second video, and it's also very nice. I really love that your video quality is so good (both appearance and content).

Your Wizard build/playstyle is quite different from the one we wrote, and from the "mainstream" Wizard trends, but I love your idea and I think it can be fun.

Out of curiosity, what would you say are the main reasons why someone would opt to play this way?

Anyway, we appreciate your contribution and we're very keen to support and promote your (future) content

Yeah I worked it out in the end. Yeah thank you very much the help is much appreciated.

I'd have to say compared to my first video the quality of both the image and audio has immensely increase.
I tried out many different programs for recording and editing and think I have found the ones that suit me best.
I thank you for that comment as I have spent extensive amount of time working on that side of my videos.

To be honest I cant take full credit for the spec as there are many people trying out similar builds and there are a lot of different variations of this build.
However this is one of the many builds I have researched, played and changed a few things on and thought people would like to see. The video was mainly to see if I could get a response. It appears that there is a lot of interest in this topic and therefore I will be releasing more videos that convey viable builds throughout the Inferno mode of the game. I will also be releasing a video with a showcase of a few different builds within the 'melee wizard' aspect.

Now that is a hard question
I personally would say people that come under the following;

- Less time than the average no lifer 16 hours day
- Has a job
- Stuck on Act 1-2
- Take the game at a slow pace and enjoy trying different builds

Would immensely appreciate this build especially since the patch came in. Now I don't know about yourself but we all hate repair costs and when your continually dying while trying to progress and you run out of funds because you've spent around about 200k on repairs you begin to wonder why you even play the game especially if you cant progress at all. I personally think that with minimal effort you can achieve the stats and gear within a couple of days to actually enjoy playing the game without continually dying to that elite pack that has just jumped on you. This build can allow players that have had a hard time on there wizard to progress onto further content.

I will thank you again for the feedback I am glad you are keen to support me I appreciate this and I will look forward to posting my new videos on these forums.

Wynn3r

ps. back to sony vegas

I will be releasing a Elite pack video within the next couple of days.
This video will include different efficient and viable builds to progress through different difficulties of the game.
I am also doing a beta vid on SMITE the new LOL moba type game purely for entertainment purposes.
Any feedback and suggestions are appreciated!

Wynn3r

Edited by Wynn3r, 30 June 2012 - 12:18 AM.

Can't wait for the new video!

And your answer to my previous question is what I thought would be the case, thanks for clearing it up

Good luck and keep us updated!