Wizard Act 3 - Increasing damage?

[Vook]

So I finally killed Belial Inferno (after like 40 wipes of getting 1-shot) and now I'm in Act 3. However, even with 35k damage, things take a while to kill, and this is proving to be a problem.

Stats

Skills

Normal mobs take much longer to kill than Act 2, and elites take forever. Any pack with shamans is annoying, because I can barely kill the grunts faster than they're getting spam-resurrected.

Now, I've seen people saying that stacking +crit and +critdmg is a good idea...is it? They said it's mostly because of the kite-y nature of Wizards, that having big crits from single attacks while you're kiting is really beneficial.

[Celidion]

Critical Hit Chance and Damage are the best ways to increase your damage in D3, by far. Increase your Intelligence, as it is very low, and also switch your Hydras to Venom Hydra, they are much stronger.

[Vook]

I can't switch my hydra to Venom, I'm using Arcane to slow mobs, so that I can use Teleport instead of Blizzard.

And...my int is "very low" ? I have int on every single piece of my gear except weapon/amulet, and no int value on my gear is lower than 80 (except ring 1), with most of my pieces having over 120 int on them. How am I supposed to get it any higher without shelling out millions and millions of gold that I don't have?

Anyways, I tried getting some +crit and +critdmg pieces, getting my crit to 27% and crit damage to 159%, but it only seemed to make a small improvement, but it dropped my health to 15k and I was getting 2shot. =/

[Vegemeat]

You can find gear with 150-200+ int on them in the Ah for 200k-600k it just takes some actual work looking through the gear. If you want the slow use seeker for the arcane slow, venom hydra does more damage and if you're having problems killing mobs you should start with that simple change.

[Alski]

You can find gear with 150-200+ int on them in the Ah for 200k-600k it just takes some actual work looking through the gear.

Its incredibly easy to search for upgrades, you have 3 things you can specify(i want an item that has min 150 int 100vit ect ect) & you can set a max buy out (or just list it by cheapest item).

To the OP yes your int is low, my freshly dinged wizard has about 1350ish int 26% crit & 168% crit damage. Using the same buffs/passives you use it has 38k dps with a mediocre weapon. By act 3 i would expect any of the ranged classes to have a 1000dps+ weapon & 16-1700 of their primary stat if they are trying to progress through act 3.

[Celidion]

I can't switch my hydra to Venom, I'm using Arcane to slow mobs, so that I can use Teleport instead of Blizzard.

And...my int is "very low" ? I have int on every single piece of my gear except weapon/amulet, and no int value on my gear is lower than 80 (except ring 1), with most of my pieces having over 120 int on them. How am I supposed to get it any higher without shelling out millions and millions of gold that I don't have?

Anyways, I tried getting some +crit and +critdmg pieces, getting my crit to 27% and crit damage to 159%, but it only seemed to make a small improvement, but it dropped my health to 15k and I was getting 2shot. =/

If you don't have a lot of money to spend, you're going to have to sacrifice survivability for damage.

[Deleted]

switch your Hydras to Venom Hydra, they are much stronger.

I'm not exactly sure why people praise Venom Hydra so much. Arcane Hydra shoots three AoE orbs which deal 28% damage each, so it's 28%+28%+28% damage AoE each time the Hydra fires off a barrage of shots. The Venom hydra leaves pools which deal 18% damage per second. If the three separate pools stack, then that's 18%+18%+18% damage per second.

The problem with Venom Hydra is that pretty much nothing in inferno sits still in the pools, and you have to throw new Hydras constantly when you're running away and kiting. Even if the pools would be bugged somehow so that the pools of one head could stack, and thus you could have more than three pools on top of each other, you'd still have to have the monsters sit in the pools.

The damage I've been seeing from my Arcane Hydra in inferno (act1-act3) has been much more reliable and thus higher than from Venom Hydra. Could also have something to do with resistances on monsters.

Then, if you use Arcane Flux for the 30% snare as I do (even with Blizzard, and I know they don't stack), Arcane Hydra becomes a very nice "fire and forget" snare machine. It has given me a much more reliable snare game than using Blizzard alone.

I have used both in inferno for quite a bit (around 100h /played on my wizard), and I have to say Venom doesn't seem to be that awesome against fast moving elites.

Could be I'm missing something.

[Hanyuu]

How often are you actually getting to use illusionist? For me, I usually would die in just a couple hits and it really wasn't as useful. I was running less health when I first started act 3. If it isn't coming up alot and you are getting to use your signature spell, maybe arcane dynamo would help. It lets you drop empowered hydras.

I won't lie to you, I have a really different spec with the standard blizzard/hydra. The one really nice thing about blizzard with the stark winter glyph is that it covers a decent area. My dps is also higher than yours...around 45 to 50k and sometimes I still can't kill a high health base mob with the extra health mod before they enrage. Tremor demons are also way too fast to kill. There's alot of combinations in the game that are about undo-able.

The big thing you are lacking is a weapon and other gear that gives you crit damage. You really want to raise that number along with raising your crit to 30 percent. I am not their either, but I usually run about 500 more INT than you do along with a weapon that's almost 900 dps and and offhand that's 300 to 380ish.

My conclusion was to retool my gear to get my 45k dps higher to make act 3 more efficient.

Edit...
I can't see your movement speed but alot of people that don't use blizzard say to get to 25 percent so you can evade the mobs better...that makes you about as fast as they are with no snare.

[Rauros]

The biggest damage increase for you would definitely be a high crit damage weapon, preferably with a socket too. Highly recommend a 1-hander for the extra quick casts, and the fact that a source can have up to 8.5% crit.

I've always hated shock pulse orb thing, would highly recommend ditching diamond skin and using blizzard / venomhydra / seeker magic missile. Purely for the fact that ranged mobs and affixes (vortex, mortar etc..) can't hit you around corners, and hydras / blizzard and magic missile (seeker) can all do exactly that.

The half cost on blizzard is really useful for me, found myself running into arcane power problems too frequently without it.

I can do Seigebreaker runs in about 15-30 minutes, depending on spawns with only 45k damage. This build is extremely safe, and "cookiecutter" for a reason.

Arcane hydra AoE is extremely small, and when kiting larger packs, having every enemy run through venom pools is so much more damage for when they're too fast to get many magic missiles off. Also Arcane orb has to be fired when in line of sight of the opponents, which risks you getting hit by spears / mortars / vortexes etc...
Arcane hydras are kind of fun for some builds, but venom hydras do phenomenal damage, not to mention blizzard does damage too for mobs you'd rather keep around a corner, even killed a few rare soul lasher packs with this build (without dying repeatedly).

The biggest problems this build (that I've found) is that most rares which spawn right at the entrance are unkillable, due to not having room to kite, and invulnerable minions can be a pain if the main one doesn't follow the rest into blizzard and hydra pools (traditionally ranged mobs get stuck / give up easily). Can usually deal with fast mobs by casting nothing but blizzard and keeping hydras in front of the front mob.

Enchantress / Scoundrel doesn't really matter, scoundrel is a bit more dps with high crit damage, and enchantress helps you to survive that 1-shot with force armour if your all resists are a bit low. When it matters, they'll both usually be dead anyway, although it is amusing for the enchantress' Charm spell to cause mobs to twat each other for most of their health.

Illusionist is also extremely useful in getting you out of tough spots, and is your only reliable escape, due to diamond skin being smashed through so quickly, and having to get so close for nova / wave. You can also use it to kite without a "loop" spawning in the map, just going to the extremes of 1 end of the map, and teleporting behind the mobs, twice if they manage to hit you. It's also good to use teleport early, as you get it back as soon as you get hit anyway (which is generally when you want it).

Edit: forgot to mention that you'd be wise to keep a healthpool of about 30k, and 300 all resists is considered quite low. I have about 35k health and 300 all resist, and the only thing that breaks through my force armour are yellow (rare) slow big axe mobs, ideally you'd have int, all resist, vitality / life %, and physical resistance on most pieces, and both crit and improved attack speed where you can find it. Buying items with a lot of these stats tends to be very expensive, however.

[Polarthief]

I can't switch my hydra to Venom, I'm using Arcane to slow mobs, so that I can use Teleport instead of Blizzard.

Skin, Illusionist, AND Teleport; it's a tad overly defensive.

IMO drop Skin for Arcane Orb and use Venom Hydra.

If you were to do that, the only differences between you and me would be I use Astral Pres over Illusionist. I just solo'd my way through all of A3 (except 3-7) today using that specc.

TBH though if you're using a kiting specc, a 2h isn't exactly the best way to go.

[Kwaidan]

Skin, Illusionist, AND Teleport; it's a tad overly defensive.

IMO drop Skin for Arcane Orb and use Venom Hydra.

If you were to do that, the only differences between you and me would be I use Astral Pres over Illusionist. I just solo'd my way through all of A3 (except 3-7) today using that specc.

TBH though if you're using a kiting specc, a 2h isn't exactly the best way to go.

Or you can go full retard like me and use hydra, blizzard AND arcane orb (+ skin, magic weapon and force armor). Works very well, especially with cold blooded.

[Konik]

I don't use diamond skin on inferno at all

1 slow ability + tele is enough

biggest boost before 1.0.3 for you would be +IAS items..get 2 rings and amulet with 15% attack speed and your dps will go much higher

[Deleted]

Arcane hydra AoE is extremely small, and when kiting larger packs, having every enemy run through venom pools is so much more damage for when they're too fast to get many magic missiles off.

Arcane hydras are kind of fun for some builds, but venom hydras do phenomenal damage, not to mention blizzard does damage too for mobs you'd rather keep around a corner, even killed a few rare soul lasher packs with this build (without dying repeatedly).

Well, here's a couple example pictures I took just now. These are both act 3 inferno, 33K DPS, albeit they're different monsters.

Arcane Hydra damage
Venom Hydra damage

The Arcane Hydra AoE has a bigger radius than the pool width, and the point of the pool is to grow in power as it stacks. As you can see from the pictures, my Arcane Hydra hits every second or so for about 24-25K, and the orbs can crit for about 12K a piece so it can go up to 36K with luck. The biggest tick I saw from my Venom Hydra as I was playing with that rare elite was around 22K. Venom Hydra pools tick single ticks, and the effectiveness of it grows the more slime has been shot in that particular spot. It doesn't last forever, however, and when your target is moving, the pools never grow beyond the first level, which ticks for about 7000. So less than one Arcane head.

I don't think people understand exactly the damage of the Venom Hydra and how it works, compared to the Arcane Hydra. While the venom pools definitely do tick faster than the Arcane Hydra shoots, the Arcane does three times the damage of a single pool, which is what you will get when - as I said - the target is moving.

So, against a single moving target or a pack of three champions, the Arcane Hydra would blast 24-36K every second or so, while the venom hydra would shoot pools on the ground, each hitting the target once for about 7000 after which it's already moved away from the pool. Only if the target stood still long enough for the hydra heads to grow the pool strength enough, and then stayed in that pool, would it tick huge amounts.

I don't think groups of white (normal) monsters need to even be taken into consideration. Anyone can kill them using any spell in mere seconds. It's champions and rare bosses that we need the spells for, and I just don't see any elites standing around waiting for the Venom Hydra to start ticking enough. I'd much rather take an assured 24-36K damage with a 30% snare.

Having said all that, it's quite possible I'm still missing something pertinent here, but quite honestly I think people are just using the Venom Hydra because some people have killed end bosses with it and have said it does insane damage. I don't think many people understand how it even works, and how Arcane Hydra works.

[Morae]

Act3 seemed quite hard to me too and somehow, if I went to try clear something while "not put my mind to it", I'd just die and not get anywhere. Then suddenly when I decided "I'm going to do this now" I'd slowly but surely progress and even kill elites enough so I get 5nv stack.

I also switched to arcane hydra a long time ago. Last time I used venom, was somewhere in act1. Stuff just doesnt say still long enough. Arcane hydra simply works better and enemies even get slowed...even elites for a short tiny moments, but every tiny bit helps.

I recently also switched from diamond skin to wave of force with the stun rune. Diamond skin doesn't move away the mobs that are hitting you...wafe of force does. Also while kiting if enemies are slowly catching to you, you can pop that once and have time to pop hydra or do something else. You can stun mobs with it on the doorway and keep enemies in choke point. Besides, I'd rather keep enemies away from myself since many are starting to one shot me trough force armor .

[Vook]

I tried switching Diamond Skin to Arcane Orb, as well as switching to an 800dps +crit dmg weapon and a +8.5% crit source; got up to 39k damage now, but still, Act 3 is proving really tough. Normal mobs are still slightly tough to kill, and elites are just a giant pain in the ass, taking 8-10 minutes of kiting and hoping that I don't get 1shot by mortars, to kill them. (seriously, 3 elites in a row in act3, all had mortar...) That is, if I can get lucky enough to NOT have an elite right at the start, which makes it literally impossible to kill because I have nowhere to kite it.

Should I be using Celestial Orb or Tap the Source? Without Tap the Source, I can only use 2 orbs before I run out of arcane power...

[hapylol]

I tried switching Diamond Skin to Arcane Orb, as well as switching to an 800dps +crit dmg weapon and a +8.5% crit source; got up to 39k damage now, but still, Act 3 is proving really tough. Normal mobs are still slightly tough to kill, and elites are just a giant pain in the ass, taking 8-10 minutes of kiting and hoping that I don't get 1shot by mortars, to kill them. (seriously, 3 elites in a row in act3, all had mortar...) That is, if I can get lucky enough to NOT have an elite right at the start, which makes it literally impossible to kill because I have nowhere to kite it.

Should I be using Celestial Orb or Tap the Source? Without Tap the Source, I can only use 2 orbs before I run out of arcane power...

You are in act3 inferno the 2nd hardest place in the game. If you expected it to be easy and quick then you will be disappointed.

I would ditch Diamond skin for Tap the Source orb and pickup venom hydra instead.

[WorldofWorkcraft]

I think you should stop listening to everyone and get more HP and resists and armor. That's what I'm going to go for while keeping damage as high as possible. I mean as a Wizard, if you want to solo, you're ALWAYS going to be kiting everything. At 20k HP there's absolutely no reason for you to even have Force Armor up, as almost every mob will hit beyond your max. That also makes Illusionist obsolete as you'll never survive more than 1 hit. I know you have Diamond Skin but that's reactionary and still can be killed through.

I have 27k HP with crap armor and resists and 26.5k DPS (don't use Force Armor or Familiar) and get owned in Act III but can still manage 5 stacks eventually if I want. Almost every elite will 1 shot me (save for a few types)...But that's just me, I hate the fact everything 1 shots me (getting killed by a Bear or Flower or Pony in Whimyshire is degrading). Honestly you just need to experiment with your own builds (you seem to know the main ones) and see what works best for you...we all play differently, amirite? *cough*

[Vook]

You are in act3 inferno the 2nd hardest place in the game. If you expected it to be easy and quick then you will be disappointed.

I never said I expected it to be easy or quick, I expect it to be not-fucking-impossible.

I think you should stop listening to everyone and get more HP and resists and armor. That's what I'm going to go for while keeping damage as high as possible. I mean as a Wizard, if you want to solo, you're ALWAYS going to be kiting everything. At 20k HP there's absolutely no reason for you to even have Force Armor up, as almost every mob will hit beyond your max. That also makes Illusionist obsolete as you'll never survive more than 1 hit. I know you have Diamond Skin but that's reactionary and still can be killed through.

Er, no. Normal mobs are still hitting for only 35%, I've got about 50% phys resist and 62% armor. It's high-damage mobs and elites that 2-shot me. (And apparently mortars that 1shot me if I'm not 100% HP)

[Chouzan]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...c&toomany=true

There's a Wizard DPS equivalence spreadsheet. Once you put in your stats you can boil it down to how much Int equivalence each of your items has and you can decide how much you want to pay. For example, if I have gloves ON me that are 90 INT / 14% ASPD, I know that (FOR ME) any glove must have 90 + 14(9) = 216 Int, since with my stats 1% ASPD is worth 9 Int. Knowing this I can play with different thresholds in the AH.

After you know what are upgrades that WILL increase your damage, you can come down to your own decision of how much you will pay per Int increase.

[Deleted]

Normal mobs are still hitting for only 35%

For someone who has 20000 health to take 35% (7000) of that as damage due to Force Armor, they would have to be hit for 7001-27000 damage, seeing as though you can only absorb up to 100% of your health. Thus a hit of 27000 would have 20000 absorbed from it, and you'd end up taking 7000. A hit of 7001 would have 1 absorbed from it, and you'd end up taking 7000.

Any hit larger than 27000 will deal more than 35% seeing as though only 20000 will be absorbed, and a hit of 40000 will kill said Wizard.

There's quite a bit out there in act 3 that will do more than 40000 in a single hit.