Also, bring back Sloarks Madness and Gesture of Orpheus. Wizards using wands needs to be a thing again.
This patch for me is looking to be a hot mess, I’m sure there are others who are looking forward to the hydra, et, and AO buffs, but with the nerfs outweighing the buffs for wizards (where the nerfs hitting us where it really huts); that’s not a viewpoint I can share. If not for the 4th cube slot, I would probably skip the next season.
But alas, it is how it is.
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They totally could put the current Legendary Affix of Deathwish onto a Wand.
Maybe even put in on Sloark’s Madness.
It always annoyed me that Deathwish is a Sword and therefore can not be transmogged into a Wand.
Sure, they could - should have done so from the start, but that isn’t the point anymore. Wand or sword, the difference is marginal, mere visuals, and I couldn’t care less about that right now. We definitely need more useful wands, though.
1 Like
My thoughts about Wizard
Etched Sigil:
I really can not understand, why you have changed Etched Sigil. Now a lot of builds ca not be used anymore. That’s really a shame!
Energy Twister:
To me it really makes no sense, that Energy Twister moves forward in a straight path. Instead it would be better, if Energy Twister would no longer travel but spin in place.
Therefore change Valthek’s Rebuke:
Energy Twister gains the effect of the rune Wicked Wind and deals 300-400% increased damage.
Fragment of Destiny:
This really is an amazing item!
But in my opinion it would be even better if it would be more open for other skills:
Your Signature Spells attack 50% faster and deal triple damage.
You gain a Spectral buff whenever you land an attack with a Signature Spell.
All skills (including Hydra) deal 25-30% increased damage for each Spectral stack.
Max 10 stacks.
Winter Flurry:
I really don’t like that we now have to use Blizzard as a third skill with the Hydra-Set. One Primary-Skill + Hydra-Skill should be enough.
Furthermore, Winter Flurry should not be a Hydra specific item, nor a Blizard specific item.
So change Winter Flurry to this:
Enemies dealt Cold damage have a 15% chance to release a Frost Nova.
All Cold Damage deals 125-150% increased damage.
The Magistrate:
Your Hydras now periodically cast Frost Nova and deal 250% - 300% increased damage.
Your Hydras also periodically pull in enemies.
Mirrorball:
Magic Missile gain the effect of the runes Charged Blast, Split and Seeker.
Whenever you land an attack with Magic Missile all your damage (including Hydra-Damage) is increased by 66% for 6 seconds.
Stacks up to 3 times.
Cosmic Strand:
Piercing Orb (Shock Pulse) now travels in a straight path, tracking the nearest enemy and then bouncing from enemy to enemy.
Whenever you land an attack with Piercing Orb all your damage (including Hydra-Damage) is increased by 66% for 6 seconds.
Stacks up to 3 times.
Serpent’s Amulet
Each Hydra Head increases your damage by 10% and attack speed by 1%.
Furthermore, your Hydras periodically spawn a health globe.
Serpent’s Orb
Hydras periodically pull in enemies and deal 222% more damage.
They also have a chance to taunt enemies for 2 seconds.
The Typhon’s Veil:
The Typhon’s Veil Set feels somehow weaker and therefore should be buffed or changed:
(2) Set:
Double the duration of Hydras. Your Hydra now has 5 different heads: Arcane-, Lightning-, Blazing-, Frost- and Mammoth-Head.
(4) Set:
Damage taken is reduced by 44% for each active Hydra.
(6) Set:
Hydras deal 11111% increased damage for each active Hydra.
.
.
.
Mobility:
Wizard has by far the worst Mobility in game.
This is known for such a long time.
Meanwhile we got Aether Walker as a kind of compensation.
However, we can not equipp Aether Walker since we would loose way to much damage, when taking this weapon instead of another one.
Movement skills ( for example Illusionist) make almost now difference.
Cooldwon of Teleport is way to long. Therefore its CD should be drastically reduced or better Teleport should be reworked.
Here some suggestions for Teleport and Aether Walker :
Teleport:
Cost: 20 Arcane Power
Teleport through the ether to the selected location up to 50 yards away.
Runes:
Calamity:
Shoot several single arcane projectiles (Arcane Torrent) onto random enemies upon arrival, dealing 175% weapon damage as Arcane.
Enemies hit are stunned for 1 second.
This opens the rune for more builds and playstyles since you do not need to be in melee range anymore but can also be at distance.
Safe Passage:
For 6 seconds after you Teleport, you will take 25% less damage.
Fracture:
For 6 seconds after you Teleport, your movement speed will be increased by 66%.
Pur Power:
Teleport now only cost 10 Arcane Power.
Forbidden Forces:
For 6 seconds after you Teleport, your damage and attack speed are increased by 6%, each.
Aether Walker:
Teleport gains the effect of all runes.
For 6 seconds after you Teleport, your damage is increased by 250% - 325%
5 Likes
Wizard needs some serious love. Look at the discrepancy between Masquerade BS Necro and TV hydras. Necro ended up with better DR, better mobility, better CC, better damage, no clunky mechanics, enjoyable to play, great for solo, speeds, group speeds and 150GR clears as TC.
Even when wizard had it’s glory days, it was still very clunky (or macro intensive) playstyle, why it is so hard to make the new set at least be enjoyable to play and competitive instead of adding all sort of stuff you need to do, count stacks, channel or step stuttering to still underperform beats me.
1 Like
Finished testing solo speed builds. With the 4th cube, TV Hydra and Frozen orb are about 4-5 tiers behind bone spear, and from what I can tell, spear is in range of where GoD DH is.
Granted, Masquerade is only this far ahead because of 4th cube Reilena’s, but without the 4th cube slot most of our Wizard builds either don’t function, or also drop a multiplier, so that’s why I’ll likely compare based on seasonal numbers.
Winter flurry Blizzard feels terrible as a maintenance buff. However, I really enjoy the spectral mechanic, inclusion of signatures.
Ended up dropping Winter flurry and arcane dynamo in the solo speed TV build because they just take too long to set up pulls. I managed to fit in spellsteal in this build. I have to say, I love the feeling of directly, dynamically increasing the damage of the hydras, scaling based on density. Feels nice. Too bad there likely isn’t room for this skill in the push build.
DMO is still pretty slow clearing for a speed but does fairly well. Feels like it used to, mostly, with using Aughilds this time😄. The increase in damage vs LoD is nice, as is the toughness; At least some reward for going full bubble.
LoD FO feels really free and unrestricted. Much easier time with mobility and less setup for pulls. Slightly less GR potential, clears quicker though.
Having Lots of fun!
Moving on to push build testing.
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I have come to the same conclusion. If we need ONE fix, just one, it’s Winter Flurry being usable without the maintanance. #2 would be Etched Sigil being reverted, and #3 would be Deathwish increasing damage to channeling spells.
The thing that chafes, the thing that just GRATES on me, was all they had to do was do 2 quick changes on ES/DW, changing the multipliers to increasing channeling spells. That was it. That’s all. A scalpel; instead they used a wrecking ball.
I don’t have much hope, and I’m thinking of withdrawing on the forums. I’m simply too bitter, too disappointed, too frustrated with them.
Although this was a little joke, I think it says it all. https://twitter.com/venaliter/status/1314801726256558080?s=20
Indeed it does.
That kind of reply … Burying ones head in the sand solves nothing, but ActiBlizz have been doing it for years so we’re kinda used to it. Used to being disappointed.
Maybe Winter Flurry could also increase the duration of Blizzard, or increase the damage against enemies for x Seconds after they have been hit by Blizzard…
… and also Winter Flurry could increase the damage of All Skills that have been hit by Blizzard, not just of Hydra.
Increaseing the duration would help. Same goes for increasing the radius. Thing is, that kind of mechanic is still on more or less the same level as an outdated DMO mechanic where enemies had to be inside the bubble for the damage buff to apply. Why would “enemies inside Blizzard” be better than “enemies inside Slow Time”? It’s essentially the same thing. Okay, Blizzard has no cooldown, but still… the general underlaying idea the same. Now think about the fact that they changed DMO so that the effect lasts some time after leaving the bubble. Why did they do this for DMO but enforce that kind of crap on Winter Flurry? If you think about it, you can pretty much say, they repeat the DMO mistake.
Ideally Winter Flurry should be tied to a mechanic involving Frost Nova and have an on hit mechanic trigger with a duration. But it seems they are dead set on using Blizzard. Then, by all means, they need to change it like
“Blizzard now lasts 10 seconds and enemies hit by Blizzard take xxx% increased damage from your Arcane Power spending or generating attacks for x seconds. Your pickup-radius increases Blizzard’s area of effect.”
That should be way better. At least my 5 cent.
2 Likes
That’s my feeling too. Winter Flurry is too restrictive. Doubling duration and/or persisting after exiting … a la DMO would help somewhat, but does not remove the fact that you’re slotting a skill that does near nothing.
The same could be said about OID. At least OID has a defensive component, and EB being close range does change playstyle if you want that DR.
Keep tacking on required skills and eventually we won’t have a skillbar. 
Blizzard being only 12 yards is a huge issue for WF. Luckily we have Apocalypse (30 yd), but this pretty much forces us into this one rune for Hydra builds using WF.
Without Apocalypse I had to either cast on top of my Hydras, or cast Blizzard multiple times; very restrictive.
Only buffing Hydras is also restrictive, though I’m not sure I want this mechanic required for other builds.
This feels like a mechanic a set would have. Makes me think of Witch doctor and their Zunimassa. Look how well that turned out. DMO is decent only because slow time has other uses.
EDIT: don’t take this as feedback supporting the current iteration of WF. I still think FN makes more sense as a skill / proc there for Hydra.
1 Like
I also think that the default radius of Blizzard on the Base Skill could get increased to 20 Yards and on top of that, they could add “Enemies take 10% more damage from your Skills while effected by Blizzard” on the Base Skill as well.
Then Winter Flurry should definitely increase the duration of Blizzard and maybe even the radius and buff the innate 10% to a few hundred percent.
I could deal with that as Blizzard might primarily be used as a Support Skill.
2 Likes
It is sad however that with patch as currently proposed, after season 22 (so, for the rest of our D3 days) LoD FO will be either 4.5 times weaker or with terrible mobility. Sad.
Masquerade is way ahead of TV Hydra.
- Better DR
- Better mobility
- Can spam AoE grouping of mobs with CC included (big CD on black hole)
- Spears pierce and deal increased dmg, and benefit greatly from Area Dmg, in high density stacked mobs 1 spear can clear the screen, hydras take time to kill stuff
- TV loses both damage and DR when hydra heads die from wizard taking dmg, Masquerade has no downside to necro taking damage
- Due to above, Necro BS Masquerade will be S tier in S22 for all parts of the game, including solo push / speed / farm / bounty group GR150 push / GR 120+ speeds, meanwhile wizard will be still a solo build (TV hydra), maybe RGK lightning hydra
We need wizard buffs before S22 goes live, or it will be another season where we play the outcast child that is great at nothing and has the most clunky and intense playstyle where you need to keep buffs up, move around, channel stutter stepping just to clear content.
IMHO. <3
Question, but is it too soon to bring out the old wizdog merchandise?
3 Likes
You can join my Wizdog clan.
2 Likes
Solo Push Testing, seasonal ~1.2kp / 8k INT, unaugmented:
Attempted DMO FO w/ OID and TV Frost w/ OID. Non-channeled push builds for both.
Damage is pretty low compared to many builds, but definitely feels much better. The power feels comparable to Vyr Cold Chantodo in non-seasonal. A step in the right direction, but still lacking in many ways.
Clear potential:
DMO Frozen Orb (https://ptr.d3planner.com/833816881) ranked GR120 at 8K fairly readily. Could extend at least 2 GRs with higher gems, more fishing. Augments and ~2kp would get 5 GRs.
GR127+ Estimated currently.
Typhon’s Veil Frost Hydra ( https://ptr.d3planner.com/821328704) ranked GR123 at 8k INT fairly readily. Same deal, 2GRs more with fishing / gear +5 GRs for Augments and ~2kp.
GR130+ Estimated currently.
I feel both of these offmeta builds are lacking in power compared to say, GoD DH / Masquerade Bone Spear, some of the Crusader builds on PTR, etc.
Recommend Additional multiplier about/between:
- 1.2x increase for DMO. 6pc increased to 15000%.
- 2 to 2.5x for Frozen Orb, to be placed on Unstable Scepter.
- 2 to 2.25x for Hydra, to be placed on Serpent’s Sparker.
Note that these recommendations are still for the offmeta variations of the builds. Meta would likely include Deathwish, and be a channeled, LoD variation (This, again, is why Deathwish requires more changes). Even DMO, when given higher toughness, can run a more offensive variation with Ranslors and Aether Walker. Hence, the ranges in my recommendations.
Playstyle & Feeling:
DMO Frozen Orb:
This DMO build, for reference, cannot fit in shielding, and in place of Endless walk, I swapped in Aughild’s+FoT+Nems. This felt great for challenging elites and getting extended pylons to help kill them. Life per hit recovery felt decent, though lower than some Necro builds for sure.
Frozen Orb, as always, is very engaging on a push, kiting is a priority, as is positioning of enemy targets.
Wizardspike, while neat to see it proc, still has little to no impact in a push scenario, since it can’t proc Area damage here.
Mostly, feels good, just like it did back in 2.6.1 but slightly better with the keen elite focus we can now place via elite damage items and FoT.
Speed pylons felt good to click, as these allowed increased attack speed for quite a long time.
I wish I could have fit in more with the cube. Echoing Fury would have been so much fun to play around with in a push scenario.
TV Hydra:
Felt surprisingly good. It was especially nice to be able to dodge attacks and move around more than we used to with Channeling.
I really enjoy the Spectral mechanic, and once getting into the rhythm of using Arcane Dynamo, felt good.
I also really enjoyed the faster stricken stacking from Spectral blades, Shame+Fragment. Felt really cool to have the insane stricken stacking for solo push.
Even still, it doesn’t make sense to me why Fragment of Destiny needs to be the item used here. Still in favor of moving the Spectral buff to TV. If group RGK builds want to fit it Fragment in, they can still do that even after this sort of change. Solo push will still stack stricken relatively fast, even without Fragment’s attack speed multiplier.
Blizzard / Winter Flurry in solo Push feels so bad to manage, again. It does introduce something else to do in the build besides signature and Dynamo, but Spellsteal or Absolute Zero would have been more engaging as a filler spell for certain, and we’d get to choose our skill, would have the option for say, MW:Deflection if we’re feeling lazy. Not a fan of the Winter Flurry. It still rolls Cold% as an affix default, why?
In the very least, Blizzard was a pretty good aggro skill, was able to more easily pull enemies.
Build wise, I still detest the fact that we have to place RoRG in every build if we want to slot Magistrate AND TnT. The set itself favors the shielding / Squirt’s playstyle but I definitely felt sad to look at it and realize that I could not swap out any part of the build for optional items or skills.
4 Likes
@Cratic:
You should make a completely new Thread for your Pushing Results,a s it could get lost within the already 100 posts in this thread.
Just put a link to this thread in your new one - if you decide to make a new thread. That way, the feedback is better visible to the the devs.
btw, are you from Germany?
2 Likes
Good suggestion, I may just copy it into the Original posting, in a new section for 2nd round thoughts/feedback after a little editing. Was nice to be able to make separate comments in the thread though as I felt or thought.
I’m from NA; US. 
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