LoD Energy Twister Wizard Skills and Runes

Active Skills
Energy Twister Wicked Wind Arcane Torrent Flame Ward 1 Teleport Safe Passage 2 Wave of Force Arcane Attunement 3 Magic Weapon Deflection 4 Storm Armor Power of the Storm
Passive Skills
Galvanizing Ward Elemental Exposure Audacity Illusionist

Your DPS mechanic comes from the interplay between channeling Arcane Torrent (which casts Energy Twisters via the worn Etched Sigil) and their merging and damage improvement via the rune Raging Storm (granted by the sword).

Your main tactic during fights will begin by attracting the attention of enemies (try to do it simply through movement and without attacking, since Energy Twisters will proc Ranslor's Folly and ruin a pull). Then, cast a Wave of Force Arcane Attunement in the biggest density pull you can form, and do a MANUAL Energy Twister in the center of the fight. Afterwards you are free to channel Arcane Torrent for the automated casts by Etched Sigil. Ideally, you will have formed the maximized Twisters exactly prior to an Arcane rotation of Convention of Elements.

Always maintain the passive buffs of Storm Armor and Magic Weapon, and reposition smartly around the battlefield with Teleport.

Your primary damage dealer is found in Energy Twister, a former group favorite that, while under the radar of many, retains most of its monstrous AoE DPS properties. You will be getting the rune with the most damage potential, Raging Storm, for free from the updated The Twisted Sword powers — empowering and enhancing the number of twisters that are able to collide and converge. To ensure you will not need to focus on manual collision of Energy Twisters, you will take the rune Wicked Wind and leave the Arcane Torrent- Etched Sigil combo to produce them automatically. With that said, other rune options for Energy Twister are certainly viable — experiment as you see fit, and do not forget to adjust elemental damage on gear as you do so.

As mentioned above, you will need to take Arcane Torrent, as its channeling mechanic interacts directly with the free Energy Twister spam of Etched Sigil. Rune-wise, take the damage reduction of Flame Ward, as damage output will not be the focus of this skill slot — simply the automated production of your main damage dealer, Energy Twister.

Wave of Force will be taken in the build as a damage amplifier for Wicked Wind, since the rune Arcane Attunement provides an immensely strong, independent damage multiplier to Arcane spells. This skill forms the basis of your burst rotation, so be very careful in its application (see the Gameplay section above).

Magic Weapon offers an attractive, long-lasting damage buff by default, which branches out even more nicely into defense via the rune Deflection — highly desirable in order to safeguard your Squirt's Necklace damage buff. Note that this protective effect is doubled via the worn Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer, if you choose to wear it.

As consistent means of protection, you will be adding Storm Armor to the build. With a fire-and-forget duration of 10 minutes and a negligible damage proc, it can be easily overlooked if not for the massive damage reduction properties of Halo of Karini (see this build's gear page for more information). You will be taking the rune Power of the Storm for the Resource Cost Reduction, but you can also consider alterations such as Shocking Aspect for the superior uptime of the procs for the Karini buff, or Scramble for the additional movement speed.

Last but not least, Teleport will round out your skill selection with valuable maneuverability across the battlefield; either to engage, reposition, or simply move away from an unfavorable fight. The preferred rune is the protective Safe Passage, which — coupled with the cooldown-resetting powers of the Illusionist passive — allows you to make use the damage reduction effect with great frequency.

This concludes the overview of the Active Skills, now let us look through the Passives.

Added with similar reasoning to Magic Weapon Deflection (mainly Squirt's Necklace buff maintenance), Galvanizing Ward introduces a solid damage buffer that benefits from the doubled effectiveness via Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer.

Audacity brings a sizable 30% multiplicative damage increase against enemies within 15 yards — a near-melee range prerequisite that you fulfill naturally through the playstyle of the build, as enemies close in on you while you channel.

Elemental Exposure rounds out your passive selection with a final, decent damage increase. Notice that the passive bumps damage in 5% increments per element used; you fulfill the fire with Flame Ward, lightning with Storm Armor and arcane with Wicked Wind. The final bump will come from the damage type of your weapon, The Twisted Sword — a lucky roll (or reroll) of the base damage from another type (i.e. physical or arcane) into cold will bring the last piece of the damage buff.

Another powerful survival tool is hidden in your Illusionist passive, feeding additional CDR into your Slow Time and turning Teleport from a strategic cooldown into a constantly available asset. The requirement of 15% life taken per hit is calculated prior to mitigation and translates into “any hit taken” in high Greater Rifts. The additional 30% movement speed after using some of the build's core abilities is just icing on the cake.