Hi guys, I've seen a lot of wizard topics scattered around the place. There are long topics for other classes to keep basic information all in 1 place, and also keep discussions going. I've not seen any theorycrafting thread for wizard for a while so here it is.

I'll start by discussing my opinions on the best gear to use for PVE in the current patch (1.0.4). It's based on archon build.

Intro
Before I start I would just like to say for PvE, the main aim is to kill as fast as possible. This way will gain you the most amount of loot and more exp per hour towards your paragon level.

The ONLY purpose of getting "defensive" stats such as resistance and armor is to stay alive to keep doing damage. Same with defensive skills such as diamond skin. If you are dead you are not doing damage, and you have to waste time to walk back.
However if you already have enough EHP (effective HP) to almost never die, there is not point at all going crazy on boosting tanking ability. It yields 0 benefit to your char (PvP you can always do with more tanking ability but not PvE).

Last but not least movement speed (MS) is important to help you "kill" faster, however at mid level gear it's not worth giving up too much DPS/EHP for movement speed.

My high end wizard - Archon Scamble Build

Active skills:
1- Spectral blade - healing blades. Decent at procing CM to get back into archon. If you are stuck in a bad/low dps 4 player where you can't kill bosses in archon form only, this is a high damage signature spell. It also heals you enough to face tank all bosses and keep doing damage constantly.

2- Energy Twister - Storm Chaser. Typical CM proc skill to get back into archon form. Use 1 storm, 1 signature spell to max the number of twisters for procing CM.

3- Archon - teleport. High end builds will have enough dps, having teleport helps you move faster.

4- Magic Weapon - force weapon. Blood magic doesn't work in archon form at all, until that gets fixed (maybe never) it's not worth using. Which leaves force weapon as the best since it boost dps.

5- Familiar - Sparkflint. More Dps.

6- Storm Armor - Scramble. At high end your gear gives enough survivability without energy armor (prismatic armor). So Scramble will benefit you more as basically any hit will make you move faster. Storm Armor does 70% weapon damage to attackers as well.

Passive skills:

1- Glass Cannon - More dps

2- Critical Mass - To get back into Archon form asap.

3- Cold Blooded (solo) - Boost all your damage if you use a scoundrel with cold damage bow.
3- Evocation - since you have no cold/freeze source.

This build does not need arcane power on crit (APoC) at all, your movement speed and kill speed will keep your archon up almost all the time. For the very limited archon down times your signature spell will be strong enough to last. Not worth lowering your abilities during archon to boost your abilities in the less than 5% down time.

Another side note, channeling skills like archon been and disintegrate will tick average damage equal to your on screen DPS. So increase attack speed (IAS) stats will be useful there.

Note there are 2 types of + % elemental damage.

1) Adds X% to "Elemental" Damage - this adds X% weapon damage as that element, and will affect all skills even if it's a + 6% Poison damage and you are using an Arcane skill. Examples are Zunimassa's bboots, Triumvirate source.

2) "Elemental" skills deal X% more damage. This only adds X% more damage to skills of that element. Examples are Tal Rasha's set bonus, Maximus's bonus.

The first type of damage bonus is amazing, the second type is mostly unless except a few cases and special builds. 1 Very useful one would be a high roll Won khim Lau for monks, but this is not a monk topic so we won't talk about that.

This post was edited by RedV on Aug 31 2012 03:56pm

Best Gear in Each Slot
For each item I will give a few options, i will compare them and give my opinions on what is the best. The others are good alternatives that are second/third best.

Some items have base rolls that have small variance, I will list only the max roll. (e.g. if it rolls 8-9 ias I will say 9, if it's 5-6 crit chance I will say 6)
Some of the legendary and set items have stats that can't be rolled on rares in that slow, such as Lacuni Prowler's movement speed, and Andariel's Visage's increase attack speed. I will call these "unique" abilities, even if more than 1 legendary/set item can roll that stat in that slot.

The item I consider best will start with #1. Some of items could have costs in the billions so almost everyone will look for cheaper alternatives.

Helm

Tal Rasha's Guise of Wisdom - It doesn't really offer any unique abilities that a rare helm can't. The set bonus adds damage only to damage of each element, it's not a +X% elemental damage set bonus. Will not be in my high end gear.

Storm Crow - The info on bnet is wrong. It doesn't offer 2 random properties, only 1. (Many 1.0.4 info is wrong, i'll list a few more below)
As such it's unique ability +8% lightning damage, and 4% damage against elites can not be complemented with critical hit and socket.
The life on hit is not useful for this build, weapon with life steal is more than enough (more about that later)
APoC is not needed as I said above.
Since you can only roll 1 out of socket, crit chance, all res this will not be in my high end gear.

Andariel's Visage - It's 9% IAS, 4.5% crit chance is about equal to storm crow's ability against elite, and better against others. However it's also only got 1 random property roll. So again this will not be in my high end gear.

#1 Mempo of Twilight - 9% IAS is it's only unique ability, it's base roll of 71-80 all res and 10-12% life is great and stats we would like to roll anyway.
It also comes with a socket as base which is another one of our top priority stats.
It has 2 random properties, again the bnet info is wrong there is no 170-200 primary (int/dex/str) stat roll.
So for the 2 prop rolls we would look for 6% crit and high int.

With it's 9% IAS, 6% crit the other helms can't compete in DPS from non-int stats. Along with high all res, life %, int and a socket, this is easily the best.

Chest

Zunimassa's Marrow - It's got great basic rolls, but no unique ability that we want. The 2 set 130 int we want, 3 set 55 all res is nice but not worth losing other stats for. This will not be in my high end gear.

Tyrael's Might - We don't need the movement speed here, movement speed from items is capped at 25%. Increase damage against elites is a low increase in damage compared to other chests. Demon damage is too limited. It also can only roll 1 random property so it can't have high vita with 3 sockets.

#1 Tal Rasha's Relentless Pursuit - 9% IAS for damage is unmatched by others. It's got 3 sockets as base roll. On top of that you can roll all res and high vita. As a chest you can have 9 IAS, 80res, 200int, 300 vita, 3 sockets on this, again easily the best.

Shoulders

#1 Vile ward - Can have massive rolls on this. There's no unique ability but this is the only item that can roll over 200int. Along with high armor, high res, vita, life % this is the best with no competition.

Bracers

#1 Lacuni Prowlers - With 2 very important unique abilities there's no competition for the best here. 12% movement speed and 9% IAS.
It can also roll 3 more random properties. With all res, 6% crit chance, Int this is an amazing peice of gear that others just can't match.

Amulet

#1 Tal Rasha's Allegiance - With the +6% elemental damage no other amulet can boost your dps as much as this. It's base int roll is 192-302 which is massive. The base crit roll is 61-65% which is amazing as well.
It's also got a decent vita roll + 2 random properties.
Those 2 properties can roll IAS and Crit chance.
A high roll trifecta Tal's amulet is unmatched by another other amulet.

Belt

#1 The Witching hour - It's getting a bit boring with straight winners for best in slot. However this belt have 2 unique abilities that we really want again.
It can roll 9%IAS and 50% crit damage. It's other base roll is Int.
With it's 3 random properties we can get all res, vita, life % (or armor). It's unique boosts are just too good to not use this.

Pants

Depth Diggers - It's easy to get high int rolls, and you have a high 71-80 all res roll as base as well. With 2 magic properties you can roll sockets and vita so it can have everything you need. However it's no different to rare pants.
The MF/GF is not useful at high paragon levels.

Blackthorne's Jousting Mail - It's got the unique ability of life on hit, each hit adds +329-479 life. Great for some other classes but for our wizard we don't really need life on hit, it's nice but not important to this build.
It's got 2 random properties which we really want to roll sockets and all res.
Life % is a unique roll on pants. However because our 2 priority rolls are socket and all res, if we don't have 1 of those a close third would be int.
As such we can't roll vita, chest and pants can roll a 200 vita as single stat which the life % won't be able cover considering the rest of our gear.

Life % vs Vita can be found else where in strategy section. Won't go into that here.

#1 Rare - 6 Rolls as follows : All res, 2 sockets, high int, high vita, vita+int combo roll, armor.
Max 80 Res, 200 Int, 300 Vita, 2 Sockets, + Armor.
The other 2 pants can't match this for the boost in EHP (a combo of vita, res, armor. dodge and block counts towards EHP but clearly that's not considered here)

Boots

Fire Walkers - The molten trail is useless as a dps boost, and doesn't proc CM. Reduce damage from melee attacks is useless since high end gear can already tank very well. No other useful abilities. These boots can roll higher than 200 int which rares can not.

Zunimassa's Journey (old set) - + 6% Poison damage, +7 IAS, +12% MS. The 2 unique damage skills are amazing. There's 2 more random rolls we can get int and all res on. Great boots, however the old set's ring is really bad which means we won't be using that, as a result we will lose the +130 int set bonus.

Ice Climbers - It's got 2 unique abilities, socket and 12% life. It can also roll over 200 int like fire walkers.
The base high all res is great and something we want on all boost anyway.
It's "unique" high int roll along with socket is better than zunimassa's 130 int set bonus. However the +6% Poison damage and IAS is still better than this. Overall the 2 boots are about the same, and one of the rare places where I think the tanking ability and dps ability are about equal in importance. In any case this comparison is not important best of the last item.

Zunimassa's Trail (new set) - bnet info is wrong again, can't roll 300 int, it can't roll over 200 int actually
Let's compare the old and new Zuni boots: (this will be a bit lengthy)
1) +8% Poison Damage. This unique ability is 2% higher than Zunimassa's Journey.
Because we already have + elemental damage on other items this doesn't make a 2% difference to total DPS. For more info see other threads.
2) -Lack 7% IAS. This like elemental damage as we have IAS else where also doesn't make a 7% difference to total dps.
3) +new Zuni boots can roll higher int. Roughly the difference is about 50 int at high rolls. Considering the total int with this wizard's set up this makes about 2% difference in total dps.
4) A side note to (3), the old set boots doesn't have base int. So to roll a high int it needs int + combo int roll. Which means it won't have any res at all. Old Zuni boots with over 100 int will not have all res.
5a) If we take points 1 to 4, the old boots can have about 2-3% more dps. BUT the old Zuni ring is terrible compared to the new and you'll lose way more than 2-3% if you use that ring. If you use a rare ring with trifecta, then you lose the 130 int bonus.
Taking this into account using the new and old sets will have very similar total DPS, new Zuni boots is a tiny bit better (including set bonus but not actual ring stats).
6) New Zuni boots at it's max dps potential have much more tanking ability. It has base vita roll and have a spare roll for all res.

Which makes Zunimassa's Trail the best gear in this slot. It's got the highest dps but ice climbers have higher EHP boost, as discussed we have plenty of EHP with high end gear we'll choose dps. From the perspective of Max Heroscore they are similar, not 100% sure but ice climbers are properly higher.

Ring

#1a Zunimassa's Pox - 61-70 all res, 32-34 crit damage, 150-169 int are it's base rolls (there's a lower one too).
On top of that it's got 3 random rolls. This ring can roll trifecta (IAS, Crit chance, Crit damage).
It doesn't have any unique abilities that rare rings can't roll. However since Zunimassa's trail is the best item in the boots slot, this ring makes up half of the +130 int "unique" set ability.
After IAS, Crit chance, crit damage, there's 1 spare roll to get roll raw damage.

Stone of Jordan - + 20-30% Damage against elites. Since we have no other gear in our set up so far this can be a +30% boost to total dps against elites. It's also got a potential 7% increased crit chance for twister, this will help twister to proc CM and get archon back faster. This has very little effect since our high end build have very little time out of archon.

#1b Rare Trifecta ring - 9% IAS, 4.5% Crit. This off sets just under half of stone of jordan's damage when we fight against elites. Stone of jordan is basically useless against all other monsters.
Now our crit dmg without this ring is so far about 30% (ring 1) + 60% (amu) + 50% (witching) + 50% (gloves) + 200% (weapon) + 50% (base) = 430 (this is not max possible from items so far). Let's discount the close to max 430 crit dmg a bit more to 420. A 30% crit dmg trifecta ring will be about a 7% increase in crit dmg, which is let's say about 4% in total dmg (since crit chance is not 100%).
It can also roll a max 178 int (this would be a max ilvl62 int stat roll and a max ilvl62 int combo stat roll). Which considering our gear's int would be about 7% different to damage.
So far we have used 5 rolls - IAS, Crit chance, Crit dmg, int, combo int (best to have int+vita). Last roll we can have raw damage.
With a +3x-9x raw damage, this would be a bit under 10% of total raw damage (weapon, source, ring 1).
So basically against elites stone of jordan is only a tiny bit worse than a maxed out rare trifecta ring, however against everything else the Rare ring is so much better.
For a more reason (not billions) peice of gear like most of us normal players, have a stone of jordan on swap for bosses would be useful. (Bosses count as elite).

The Wailing host - Can roll trifecta! It's got 4% bonus damage against elites, but can't roll raw damage. So overall a trifecta rare ring is better. A trifecta wailing host is still great though.

Small side note:

Screaming chain - can roll high int, with small bonus damage to elite. Can't roll trifecta so useless.

The Compass Rose - Have 12% movement speed but we have 24%/25% movement speed already so it's a waste. Again can't roll trifecta, can roll 2 out of 3.

Litany of the Undaunted - Nothing special for wizard and can't roll trifecta. Can roll 2 out of 3.

Oculus ring - Big tank ring, useless for us. Can only roll 1 out of 3 fectas.

Leoric's Signet - Max + 30% bonus experience, can be very useful for leveling paragon. Recommended before level 100.

Gloves

No real options to consider as far as I know.

#1 Rare - Trifecta gloves. 6 rolls as follows.
Max IAS - 9%
Max Crit chance - 10%
Max Crit Dmg - 50%
Max single int - 200
Max combo int - 100 (so total Max int is 300, best to get Int + vita combo and not others).
Max all res - 80

This post was edited by RedV on Aug 31 2012 03:46pm

Since Weapon and source is intertwined, I will do that another time.

Without looking at it in detail a 1 hander + source is slightly better, and a good rare weapon with triumvirate is the best.

From the gear above we'll have roughly:

All res - let's say each have rolled 75. Helm, Armor, Belt, Pants, Boots, Gloves, Shoulders, Bracers will give 600 (Max 640 res). Zuni Pox can roll 61-70.
Lets say we have about 660 all res from gear's all res.
We'll have about 3k int which is another 300 all res.
So without any buffs this is about 1k all res. This is enough res so that Prismatic Armor is not needed. In archon mode we'll have 1.4k all res.
Which means storm armor with scramble's speed boost will be better, this boost can go over the 25% movement cap from gear. Also storm does 70% weapon damage to attackers too.

The rest of my skill build is relatively standard as an archon build.

The expected cost for the best gear will billions and billions at the moment. To a practical and survivable archon scramble build would cost a fraction of the best listed but still quite expensive.

This post was edited by RedV on Aug 31 2012 04:03pm

i'm trying storm armor tonight! i haven't used galv ward in forever, so my energy armor runs out every time i'm in archon anyway. i'm curious to see how much this procs cm too.

i assume the 25% movement can stack with the already 25 cap, making it 50frw?

Yes.

good thread, you could add that soj can have +cold dmg so you can use cold blooded in parties if your tal amu had a different element.

I tried maximum speed @ a3 runs and tried storm armor as well! but there was no difference in speed because the ms speed i got, got nullified by less survivability

That won't work. And also the + cold damage stones of jordan are the old stones of jordan which doesn't have a huge + 30% bonus to elites. Bosses and elites are the toughest monsters, taking 0.5seconds longer on a white monster affects your survivability/farming speed by very little.



my gear is not good enough to make scramble archon work well either. I have top 50 rank EU heroscore and top 50 rank dps, still need a tiny bit more res or dps.

In a group game this could work well, for a wiz to keep up with the ww barbs and 1.0.3 nat vaulting dh.

About how much would you health will you need for act 3 runs? I kind of get by with killing lone elites if they don't run all of the place like crack fiends.

e/ I have about 31k hp.

This post was edited by AsIs on Aug 31 2012 05:08pm

the point is that you need to get hit and then move faster for only a few seconds. but for fast runs you want to kill everything for maximum exp! if you wanna do fastest runs possible you should aim for illusionist + teleport and enough life reg. you nn archon with best dps anyways.