Cold Wizard Build

[Warfaire 0]

I am relatively new to Wizard and I Solo more than I group with others.  I have found that I like to keep my distance and been using the below.  I am still just 400 paragon so I still have some leveling.  I have the LON rings and some of the set items listed here... I guess my question is, are my spell setups viable for good high level GR's?  Should I stack LoN with Cold and Ray of Frost modifiers?  I have been focusing recently on higher raw damage numbers and set items that only increase dmg output for what I use below.  I don't see hardly anything online for Cold Wiz builds.

Primary - Ray of Frost (Snow Blast) - can essentially cast it non stop if I dont use anything else
rt click - Blizzard (Frozen Solid) - for getting hard guys frozen so I can get away or better control if needed.

1: Energy Armor (Energy Tap) - help with arcane power
2: Been mixing this one between:  (basically for when they get close or if I want to murder the trash quickly
Explosive Blast (Chain Reaction)
Wave of Force (Heat Wave)
3: Teleport (Wormhole) - Those pesky Wall and Purple Beam Traps
4: Familiar (Arcanot) - for Arcane regen. 

 

Thanks again.

[Warfaire 0]

How bout this:
Passive: Glass Cannon, Evocation, Astral Presence, Audacity

Mouse1: Ray of Frost (Cold Blood)
Mouse2: Blizzard (Frozen Solid)
1: Energy Armor (Energy Tap)
2. (Explosive Blast (Chain Reaction)
3. Teleport (Wormhole)
4. Magic Weapon (Ignite)

Then i can spec gear for cold and fire?  Tal Rasha?, Lon?  Would LON have more impact?

 

thanks again

[Guest]

This build uses cold damage (frozen orb):
https://www.icy-veins.com/d3/wizard-dmo-frozen-orb-build-patch-2-6-5-season-17

In general you can use any build you like in the lower Torment difficulties.

If you want to go as high as possible (Greater Rifts) it will be inevitable to use one the guides you find in the net.

There are tons of things to take into account, insane damage boosts by this set or some other, how skills work together, how you can circumvent cooldowns...

It is nearly impossible to find a build on your own that is really differnt (and not just some small adjustment) but as efficient.

[Yolo 40]

The huge problem with Ray of Frost that it does not pierce if you do not have Light of Grace equipped, or you dont turn it into a point blank AOE skill with Sleet storm, thus rendering it underwhelming in efficiency compared to other channeling spells. 

Tal Rasha is only considerable if all 4 elements covered, because of how the 6 set works. 

 

[Knutsanity 15]

Death wish and etched sigil, in the weapon and offhand. Could get you into the 90's in GRs with LoN, with a cold meteor or cold twister. The cold frostburn gloves are a nice addition. You would have too make sure you only have the 1 spender, twister or meteor with all the modifiers though. The boots and cubed weapon for meteor. The bracers and cubed weapon for twister. More than one means you won't always get the powerful one from the etched sigil for free. It is also impossible to get all the modifiers for more than one. 
The issue with pretty much every single top build for every class is eventually you have to focus on only one skill for damage and maximise it, that leaves barely enough room to get your toughness up as high as it needs to be at higher levels. If you want to get up high with cold as a wizard, this is about as good as the frozen orb build for offence, and better for defence IMO. But enjoy the lower levels for skill variation, and just doing as you please. Because when you get up there it basically always has to be with 1 skill for dmg and everything else only to compliment it in other ways. 

LoN is much better than Tal Rasha unless you can use all 4 elements. But you still end up only using 1 for the majority of your damage, and the rest for proccing the set bonus damage only, to make your damage skill even better.  I liked Tal Rasha though, the freeze procced my cold, lightning procced my lightning, my meteors were my fire, and incinerate was my arcane. But all they did in combination was make the fire meteors more powerful, so even with that making fire my only boosted element was the way to go. When you go high it just makes sense to go with 1 damage skill, and whatever elemental damage it does only. 

You won't see it on the build page because it is not as good as the star pact, and very similar, just much easier and less powerful. But it is more powerful than half the builds on the page. Use the Taeguk and Mantle of channelling if you try it. Deathwish and Etched sigil are worth it even if they aren't ancient for now, even with LoN. But the other elements are actually still better with these skills, arcane for twister, or fire with meteor, if you want cold you want cold though and both could get you into the 90's. 

 

[Yolo 40]

2 hours ago, Knutsanity said:

Death wish and etched sigil, in the weapon and offhand. Could get you into the 90's in GRs with LoN, with a cold meteor or cold twister. The cold frostburn gloves are a nice addition. You would have too make sure you only have the 1 spender, twister or meteor with all the modifiers though. The boots and cubed weapon for meteor. The bracers and cubed weapon for twister. More than one means you won't always get the powerful one from the etched sigil for free. It is also impossible to get all the modifiers for more than one. 
The issue with pretty much every single top build for every class is eventually you have to focus on only one skill for damage and maximise it, that leaves barely enough room to get your toughness up as high as it needs to be at higher levels. If you want to get up high with cold as a wizard, this is about as good as the frozen orb build for offence, and better for defence IMO. But enjoy the lower levels for skill variation, and just doing as you please. Because when you get up there it basically always has to be with 1 skill for dmg and everything else only to compliment it in other ways. 

LoN is much better than Tal Rasha unless you can use all 4 elements. But you still end up only using 1 for the majority of your damage, and the rest for proccing the set bonus damage only, to make your damage skill even better.  I liked Tal Rasha though, the freeze procced my cold, lightning procced my lightning, my meteors were my fire, and incinerate was my arcane. But all they did in combination was make the fire meteors more powerful, so even with that making fire my only boosted element was the way to go. When you go high it just makes sense to go with 1 damage skill, and whatever elemental damage it does only. 

You won't see it on the build page because it is not as good as the star pact, and very similar, just much easier and less powerful. But it is more powerful than half the builds on the page. Use the Taeguk and Mantle of channelling if you try it. Deathwish and Etched sigil are worth it even if they aren't ancient for now, even with LoN. But the other elements are actually still better with these skills, arcane for twister, or fire with meteor, if you want cold you want cold though and both could get you into the 90's. 

 

https://www.d3planner.com/959630657 

Here is an example of such a build. Sadly its season only. 

[Yolo 40]

6 hours ago, Yolo said:

https://www.d3planner.com/959630657 

Here is an example of such a build. Sadly its season only. 

A little more comment on the stat priorities: Besides the usual Crit recommendations, You should obtain 34% Attack Speed (Paragon+Belt+3 IAS rolls on gear) for the 15 frames breakpoint on Ray of Frost to match the 59 frame internal cooldown on Etched Sigil. Once you have obtained it, you can go Area Damage. With Hergbrash Binding Cubed, and Having no cooldown Skills, there are no need for other Stats. 

[Knutsanity 15]

Exactly, thank you @Yolo. I use much more vitality on HC and don't do season. So mine looks much different. I use HoK for my ring, even with 3 bill toughness, I'd rather not go all the way down to 600M. I also found twister is surprisingly a little more powerful with the channelling LoN than Meteor, though can't confirm with both being cold dmg. But that is the exact Idea, especially if the OP is playing season and wants cold. Makes that Bane of the Trapped a great add. Unity is great if solo. 
Those Ancient Parthan Defenders though? I've seen them in builds that don't make sense to me before. Does that mean they work with more control impairing effects than just "stun"? Do they work with freeze and immobilise as well then? 
But you have the necessities. The belt with reduced channelling cost which makes the aquila cuirass viable, the mantle of channelling and the channelling weapon and off hand combo. The taeguk. Absolute musts for the build. 
Everything else I'd say the OP can play around with. The familiar is a good idea, but I use frost nova for extra defence strategy. Or the slow time helmet that gives it all runes, and slow time instead of that gave me a huge boost, it's better offence and defence than frost nova or familiar all in one, but only with all runes. Gloves have a fire or cold option, or a shield against elites option. Bracers have the nemesis bracers that always help, and the blood bracers that help the galvanising wizard shield. 

[Yolo 40]

4 hours ago, Knutsanity said:

Exactly, thank you @Yolo. I use much more vitality on HC and don't do season. So mine looks much different. I use HoK for my ring, even with 3 bill toughness, I'd rather not go all the way down to 600M. I also found twister is surprisingly a little more powerful with the channelling LoN than Meteor, though can't confirm with both being cold dmg. But that is the exact Idea, especially if the OP is playing season and wants cold. Makes that Bane of the Trapped a great add. Unity is great if solo. 
Those Ancient Parthan Defenders though? I've seen them in builds that don't make sense to me before. Does that mean they work with more control impairing effects than just "stun"? Do they work with freeze and immobilise as well then? 
But you have the necessities. The belt with reduced channelling cost which makes the aquila cuirass viable, the mantle of channelling and the channelling weapon and off hand combo. The taeguk. Absolute musts for the build. 
Everything else I'd say the OP can play around with. The familiar is a good idea, but I use frost nova for extra defence strategy. Or the slow time helmet that gives it all runes, and slow time instead of that gave me a huge boost, it's better offence and defence than frost nova or familiar all in one, but only with all runes. Gloves have a fire or cold option, or a shield against elites option. Bracers have the nemesis bracers that always help, and the blood bracers that help the galvanising wizard shield. 

APD works with Freeze as well. And The cold Meteor Rune Freeze everything Chilled for 1 sec. Blood bracers are a viable alternative, éven better if it works with Magic Weapon Deflection shield.

I included Familiar only for fire and forget, unconditional damage increase, can be substituted with Frost Nova Bone Chill for even more damage and APD procs, but its not that effective without The Ice Armor Ring. That should be tested out, but i dont have the time to farm everything out and test if this or that works better in certain situations. 

Cold blooded is the weakest talent in there and can be substituted with power hungry for more damage. 

The charm of this Build (i call it LoN Chanelling Wizard) that it can be alterated to all elements. 

Fire with Arcane Torrent Flame Ward and Meteor Shower, Arcane with Disintegrate intensify and Energy twister raging storm and some gear tweaks, or Lightning with Arcane Torrent static discharge, Meteor Thunder Crash and Manald Heal. (God of Thunder vibes ofc) 

I really appreciate the theme of this season, because it enables builds like this to shine, but the all Ancient requirement heavily punishes those who have little time to play. 

[Knutsanity 15]

In a sense the all ancient sucks. But even if not ancient the Deathwish, Etched sigil and mantle of chanelling all are worth putting on still. Even at 9 ancients without an ancient weapon I can do 90's not in season. So without the awesome dmg ring options, using HoK. Because you gain with each ancient, instead of needing all ancients, really you just get better with each ancient. Those main 3 are better for the build as regular legendaries than even a primal ancient of another kind. And yeah that's what I love about the build too, can easily tweek it for any elemental rune of either meteor or twister, can tweek your skills to your liking, can let the drops make the decisions in the build for you. Not so much a cookie cutter build at all. Probably perfect for a season build, since you can get quite high fairly quickly with out perfect drops. I can do GR 90 without a mantle of channelling, without 4 things being ancient including the weapon as well. So I mean real quickly in season, you can probably stick to T16 and do GR80 using any of the runes for twister or meteor, as long as it has its 2 leg buffs. Would only take the weapon offhand combo, the rings and even 7 or 8 ancients for the rest would do. So you could fly up in experience with a half build really, and get the build perfected as you go. Higher drop rates and paragon earlier on would likely pay huge dividends over time. You can't do anywhere near that good with most builds as a half build like that. This one would top out around 100-110 unlike some better builds, but I imagine perfect for starting a season. 

[Knutsanity 15]

For any season starter really. Never mind this LoN one.