Cm Wizard - The Freezer


What is a CM / freeze sorc?

CM (Critical Mass) is the corestat in this build, you ll use it to reduce your cooldowns really quick. The result is a great survivability and in case of you can spam your Frost Nova you can infinity freeze enemies.
The other result is a great damage output. Yeah, your onscreen damage is lower than a Archon wizard, but in case of u spam your dmg spells like hell you use around 400% onscreen Dps.



THIS GUIDE IS BASED ON PATCH 1.0.7


Mechanic

If u look at the cooldowns you need a bunch of arcain power. You ll get it with your items. Therefore you need items witch Apoc (arcainpower on crit).
Consideration of the Mechanics
If u think each crit will proc your CM you are wrong. Each spell has a proc rate which means it is a multiplicator for the chance of using a proc:

Shock Pulse
- Piercing Orb: 0.5
- Living Lightning: 0.2
Spectral Blades
- Thrown Blade: 0.08
- others: 0.14
Energy Twister: 0.125
Explosive Blast
- Chain Reaction: 0.111
- Obliterate: 0.125
Most other: 0.333

Next consideration is how do u reduce the cooldowns if there is such a bad chance for getting a crit. Let’s think about Energy Twister. You ll have a chance of 0.125 proc rate for activating CM and Apoc.
So, how is CM reducing the cooldowns to let a CM sorc run?
Each Twister is not just making 1 attack per Twister, the attacks per Twister is compared with the amount of Attacks per second you do, which is called Tickrate.



Skills

Coreskills to let a CM wizard work:
Tornado – Wicked Wind
Explosive Blast – Chainreaction
Frostnova - Coldsnap (more DMG) or Bonechill (lower cooldown)
Diamondkin – Crystal Shell (double shield) or Diamond Shards (each recast will cause the Damage)

Optional skills:
As long as you still have 2 more skills there are a few options:
Slow Time – Stretch Time (10% Attakspeed)
Energy Armour – Pinpoint Barrier (5% cc) or Prismatic armour (25% resistences)
Storm Armour – Shocking Aspect
Teleport
Also useable but not preferred:
Spectral Blade
Magic Weappon

Passives:
CRITICAL MASS (must have !)
Unstable Anomaly
Cold Blooded (15% more dmg in case of you infinity chill enemies or lower cooldown if u see you can’t permafreeze enemies by lowering cooldowns)
Evocation
Blur
Also useable but not preferred:
Glasscanon

I use these skills and my opinion is, that’s its working really well:
Slow Time, Wicked Wind, Explosive Blast, Diamond Skin, Energy Armor, Frost Nova
Critical Mass, Cold Blooded, Unstable Anomaly

What do I need for a working CM wizard?

There are a few caps you should reach to make a CM wizard work:
Minimum:
45 cc
17 Apoc
250 Loh
450 all res (unbuffed)
30k Life
Optimum:
50 cc
18 Apoc
xxx Loh (moste guys will tell 800+ but I still run on 3xx Loh and its workin awesome)
500 all res (unbuffed)
40k Life
Attackspeed is a question of choice, but to permafreeze enemies you need the 2.73 attackspeed cap.
In case of a higher cap will do more proggs -> lower cooldowns - > more casts -> better freeze / more damage I use the 3.1 cap and I really like it.

Items

As soon as there are many ways of gearing up a CM wizard I ll only bring some ideas of items in each slot.

Weapon:
Chantodos Will: Apoc, highest attackspeed, int bonus in set & less dmg from elite
Sloraks Madness: cc on it, 1 random prop (sock or apoc)
Wizardspike: resistences, attackspeed (xx%) Apoc, cheap -no random prop
rare dagger with x% attackspeed: sock and cc possible, black dmg possible most dps possible if u got infinity gold^^

Offhand:
Chantodos Force: unique attackspeed on orb! , cc, random prop (Apoc)
Triumvirate: most dmg boost possible (advice if u use dagger with black dmg), cc, 1 random prop
The Oculus: cc, Apoc (standard), increases Dmg against elites, 1 random prop, cheap
Tal Rashas Unwavering Glare: cc, 2 random props (Apoc), cheap

Armor:
Tal Rashas Relentless Pursuit: UNIQUE ATTACKSPEED!
Zunimassas Marrow: Resistences & Resistences if u use 2x set
(Rare Armors are possible… maybe Tyraels or Cindercoat)

Belt:
Witching Hour: Unique Attackspeed & Critdamage (CD) <- best item in slot!!
Tal Rashas Brace: Int, cc, increased Elite dmg

Legs:
Innas with int: Unique Attackspeed, cc, movespeed (nice to have)
Blackthornes Jousging Mail: vita, xx% Life, Unique Loh
Depth Diggers: Resistences, high int roll, sox possible

Boots:
Natalyas Bloody Footprints with int: 7% cc with ring(!!), movespeed, reduced dmg from elites, resis
Zunimassas Trail: elemental dmg (nice with dagger with black dmg), movespeed, int via set
Ice Climbers: highest int possible, -movespeed is no random roll on them
Fire Walkers: high int possible, really cheap

Gloves:
Triforce/crafted gloves (1.0.7).. no other choice in this slot.. maybe with int&vit, int&res, int&vit&res
rare gloves with attackspeed & cc
crafted gloves (1.0.7 patch)

Bracers:
Rare/crafted (1.0.7 patch): int, vit, all res, cc (must have!!)
Lacuni Prowlers: unique attackspeed, random probs: cc, int, …
Shoulders:
Rare/crafted (1.0.7 patch): int, vit, all res, armor, %life
Vile Wards: high res, armor, really high int possible, vit is a random roll and expensive

Helms:
Mempo of Twilight: unique attackspeed, nice defensive stats, I would not use without cc (really expensive)
Stormcrow: you need cc on it! (just 1 random prop), unique Loh, %elemental dmg, …
Tal Rashas Guise of Wisdom: high crit,… , 2 random props.. maybe vit& all res (cheap and nice)

Jewelry:

Rings:
Natalyas Reflection: high attackspeed, Set with the boots (7%cc!!!), random int roll, maybe cc, I use LOH on it, so I don’t need Loh on other equip!
Zunimassas Pox: you need 1 with cc!, all res on it, cd on it, setbonus (2) 130 Int, (3) 55 all res
Unity: 4,5cc standard, average dmg, int, increased elite dmg, Loh

Amulet:
triforce rare/crafted (1.0.7 patch):int, you need cc and cd on them.. ias, average dmg, maybe vit/all reas, Loh,……
Tal Rashas Allegiance: you need cc on it!, x% elemental dmg, high int, vit, cd basic on it

I use crafted(1.0.7) high cc, high cd, int, vit, average dmg amu, unity with 6% attackspeed, Natalyas Ring (in set) with Loh, int, vit and I really love it !
In case of u need LOH you can buy LOH on Natalyas and you don’t need Blackthornes pents and can wear innas … this will increase your dmg massive while still having a greate survivability.

This post was edited by claw89 on Feb 25 2013 10:28am

As long as i didnt try SNS (ShockNadoShards) wizzard, yet.. maybe someone can poste a small review of the function here? i will quote it in a following guide.

points should be:
- is it that eazy to permafreeze single uberbosses with atleast 1.74 attack speed?
- is shock procking CM... shocking aspect shocks procking CM?
- are shards procking CM?
- reached stats in this build (Loh, Resis, HP) ?

ok.. i think i got the point now and will change in following topics... but i m still up for more advices concerning the whole guide

Next quote concerning my topic from "The High End Wizard Discussion" :

Good guide, but is it so hard to spell and grammar check before posting?



Drop me a PM if you want me to do it, since I'm bored with D3 for the time being.

This post was edited by GetOnYourKnees on Feb 27 2013 02:10pm

at this moment.. yes it is.. its no complete guide yet... so i m lookin forward to get more informations ans failures to make a complete guide... after that i ll give it to a m8 of mine to correct all mistakes ^^

ok... i was thinkin about something new.. i m not happy about the itemlist... should i shorten it and just make an
example of SNS / normal CM WW build?
maybe price categories? (budged/mid/highend) ?

and maybe a link to a topic with the complete list from this topic?

This post was edited by claw89 on Feb 28 2013 05:13pm

yeah pls do a budget guide

little add i forgott to poste after hotfix:

bug fixed for apoc 2x prog on nado... so you need 2x apoc items again