Are you a wizard?!

[Deeply-Fried Orange]

YES IMA WIZARD! 35 level, Act I of Nightmare.

Primary skill: Electrocute.
Decent damage, AoE capability and max range. With current perks, Electrocute seems to be the best primary skill for leveling. Magic Missiles often miss on moving targets and are much less potent for AoE, Shock Pulse has limited range/can miss (with Piercing Orb rune). Spectral Blade has very limited range while its damage is quite not enough to compensate that.
Rune: Chain Lightning, to improve its AoE further. Surge of Power will possibly be better to use, once it is available.

Secondary skill: Disintegrate.
1) Insane damage, insane AoE capability and max range.
2) LOOKS AWESOME. FEELS AWESOME.
Other three don't come any close, at least so far.
Rune: Convergence, to improve its AoE further. Chaos Nexus doesn't seem to be as effective. However, Intensity surely will be the best to use at higher levels.

Defensive: Frost Nova.
It is rather Defensive/Offensive skill, and it works great in both directions. Considering what a disappointment the teleport is, I can say that Frost Nova is by far the most useful skill for leveling.
Rune: Shatter, for the lack of better - Cold Snap is not working. Deep Freeze/Bone Chill will take its place later.

Force: Wave of Force.
Like Frost Nova, WoF has both offensive and defensive utility, and works great in both directions as well. It is often a life saver, and its damage is quite potent.
Rune: Impactful Wave, to improve its defensive utility. To be honest, it seems like I'm not going to replace this rune with any other.

Conjuration: No idea at this moment of time.
Storm Armor with Power of the Storm would be the weapon of choice for me, but sadly, it is bugged and isn't working at all. Currently, I'm using Familiar with Sparkflint rune, because it seems to be at least somewhat useful for offense.

Mastery: Archon.
There's nothing to be said about this skill, as it renders the other two completely obsolete right after you get it. Archon makes it up for any flaw the wizard has.

Passive:
1) Glass Cannon.
15% extra damage is 15% extra damage. This skill would be worth it even if the damage/resistance penalty was 50%.
2) Astral Presence.
This perk has the second highest offensive utility, at least if you're using Disintegrate.
3) Blur
20% melee damage taken decrease is wonderful. Nothing else seems to be as appealing so far.


I'd like to see other thoughts on the build from higher level characters. In general, I think there surely will be a cookie-cuter build with minor diversities:

1) AoE/Full offense
2) Single-target/Full offense
3) AoE/Defensive
4) Single-target/Defensive
5) Mixed/Full defense

[Veliane]

This should be included in your first line.

http://www.myfacewhen.net/uploads/459-i-am-a-wizard.jpg

[Archimand]

rofl close to what im using for inferno i suggest picking diamond skin for 2nd defensive

go elective mode

[stuartj1992]

I-I-I'm a what?

[Deeply-Fried Orange]

rofl close to what im using for inferno i suggest picking diamond skin for 2nd defensive

go elective mode

Oh, that's indeed a good idea! The familiar was a rather useless companion anyway.

Come on Blizzard, fix Power of the Storm already, you lazy gits!

Btw, can you freeze Hell/Inferno bosses? Even Diablo could be frozen/stunned on Normal, hah.

[Archimand]

butcher can be stunned and frozen on nightmare

and i meant nightmare not inferno probebly gonna tweak some skills for later on

wave of force is a powerhouse for damage and stun 200% is quite alot

you can play offensive with diamond skin like putting it up and charging into group of mobs


archon as dps cooldown is awesome i suggest teleport rune or the slow time one

[Deleted]

I-I-I'm a what?

A wizard, Harry.

[Archimand]

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...dXm!aYU!aaaaaY is what ill use

3rd passive can be changed but the slow from disintigrate can be pretty useful

[Cludo]

A wizard, Harry.

Just I'm just Harry.

[Deleted]

just i'm just harry.

yer a fackin' wizard, ahrrite?!

[Archimand]

little update
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...OXm!aYf!bbabaY
seem abit better with armor

[moff]

these are my skills and i absolutely love my wizard, kicks so much ass
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...RXl!aYf!aZabaZ

[jeremynative]

how can u play without the absorbtion armor? its like having divine shield on a 15 sec cooldown

[Agent Mercury]

Why are you not elective.

[schwarzkopf]

Diamond skin + glyph to reduce casting costs is a great companion to disintegrate.

Add the reduced cool down passive and it can be pretty awesome

[vian]

Atm yes, rerolled one after I grew tired with the lack of challenge as a DH in Hell, hope this'll get better : D

[Deleted]

In 12½ years.

[Xami]

I go with Arcane Orb + Obliteration for my main nuke. I like being mobile.

[Deleted]

Why are you not elective.

This guy, he knows stuff.

He's totally right, go to your options>click elective mode. Then you want to drop force altogether as it sucks ass, if you run with disintegrate than I like using the rune for the swirling arcane orbs in it's place, and until you can pick up the 10% weapon buff from conjuring then none of the other options hold their weight, so you have an extra slot to play around with. I'm actually really liking slow time right now, I know it's far from the best but I suggest at least trying it out, make a defence heavy build [diamond skin + frost nova + slow time] and rely solely on disintegrate for damage output, electrocute inbetween.

Goodluck!

[Cyphran]

Im a Wizard!

Just finished Act2 and I'm lvl25... I was talking to a friend and apparently I'm freaking overlevelled for the content. I expect it's because I bought a really nice wand and offhand from the AH and everything else pretty much has +5 to +10 experience gained per mob kill. I've been exploring a bit to find everything (damn you achievements)... but I didn't realise just how overlevelled I was until an hour ago (apparently my friends are killing the last boss at like lvl28-30.

Atm using Electrocute (Runed for 6 targets) and Arcane Orb (runed for +damage) as my Mouse Skills

For 1 I'm running Frost Nova (Runed for cooldown reduction)
For 2 I'm running Frost Ray (Runed for stacking intensity)
For 3 I'm running Diamond Skin (Runed for Arcane Power use reduction)
For 4 I'm running Teleport (No runes yet owing to level) - This I'm not overyly happy about, considering a change

Passives are Blur and Arcane Power.

Standard group encounter goes
Get close - Diamond Skin - Arcane Orbx5 - Frost Nova - GTFO - Repeat
Standard champion/boss encounter goes
Kite like a mofo - Diamond Skin - Frost Ray till out of Arcane Power - Kite like a mofo - Repeat