[Wizard] Arcane Torrent Offensive Build

Since the release of 1.0.4, I've done a lot of experimenting with Arcane Torrent as it got one of the strongest buffs out of all the Wizard skills. After trying a bunch of different builds, I've nailed down a build that I really enjoy and is actually one of the best all-around builds I've come across.

Who is the build for:

This build is for Wizards who like to farm full acts, including trash mobs, elites, and bosses. If you're going for pure paragon farming, I'm pretty sure Archon + godly gear is still superior (but only by a little!)

What gear do you need:

You need lots of AP for this build, so I suggest either use a slow 2 handed weapon, or if you have fast attack speed: lots of crit chance and APoC. A helm that reduces cost of Arcane Torrent is awesome as well. My gear is actually a little bit too attack speed oriented, but as you will see in the video, it can still work.

Since this build is using Illusionist, and Prismatic Armor, you need some decent damage reduction, but you actually can have too much defense in this build, so life regen, life steal, LoH, are good defensive alternatives to armor and resist all. I will emphasize life steal is actually really awesome for this build since you will be doing tons of damage. LoH is not so good because Arcane Torrent has kind of a low proc rate.

The Build:

• Arcane Torrent - Disruption
• Arcane Hydra
• Magic Weapon - Force Weapon
• Familiar - Spark Flint
• Teleport - Fracture
• Force Armor - Prismatic
• Glass Cannon
• Astral Presence
• Illusionist

This build is all about offensive power. There is very little kiting involved as you kill most enemies (even elites with good gear), before they even get to you. That being said, you can still kite if you need to. There are 4 damage buffs from this build. 15% from Glass Cannon, 15% from magic weapon, 15% from disruption, and 12% from familiar. Not sure exactly how it all stacks, but needless to say there are very few builds that rival this in terms of DPS.

Strategy:

First of all, find the correct content that suits your gear. I'm at 60k DPS and I'm farming Act 3 and I only die to Phase Beasts and stupid mistakes. Find the sweet spot were enemies are generally doing more than 15% of your max HP in damage (to activate Illusionist) and less than 35% (otherwise prismatic isn't really helping you). The reason why I don't like force armor is because you are healing less effective HP with your life regen and life steal.

You may notice that I have no slows or stuns. And you may ask why would I have no slows? Because when you have a decently geared Templar and your decoys with fracture, the monsters are distracted long enough for you to kill them. I really don't miss having Blizzard or Temporal Flux at all.

Tactics:

It's pretty simple. Put up an Arcane hydra, aim your arcane torrent on the biggest clump of enemies you can see, and watch them melt. If I'm fighting tough monsters I like to pre-teleport to get my decoys up, and it gives me more time to dish out damage. I find that liberal use of teleport keeps the deaths down to a minimum.

Follower:

I prefer the Templar for the tanking, heals, and the small AP regen boost. That said, I'm sure the other followers can be quite helpful as well.

Variants:

Using Calamity instead of Fracture is fun for killing trash mobs. I can get some pretty sick Massacre numbers (50's and 60's), however I still die to elites way often with this variant.

Video:

Please excuse my noobie micro. I run out of AP a lot because my aim is bad and I shoot shielded elites, but usually my runs are a little bit faster.

Conclusion:

If you want to try out a new build that is fun, efficient, and powerful, I suggest giving a whirl. Please feel free to post comments, suggestions, questions.

Posted in: Wizard Build