Several years ago, when I Wizard was my main class, I put forth a suggestion for a cold based set for Wizards. This set had been inspired by the Firebird’s set in that it provided a set of generic buffs to cold damage based skills and then could have various builds fine tuned and building upon the foundation of the set with specific legendaries like the “Light of Grace”.
Over the years this generated a small amount of interest, but seeing as how Blizzard was not interested in making new sets, I ultimately shelved the idea and walked away from the Wizard entirely in favor of the DH.
Now that Blizzard has announced they are making new sets for classes again, I would once again like to put forth my suggestion for a cold set for the Wizard class. The following link is to the archived forums:
Well I had other threads too, but seems they were all in the PTR forums and are now all 404.
To reiterate what I had come up with:
Introduction:
So I have been thinking a bunch on the Firebird Set and how I would design a set for my preferred Ray of Frost (‘RoF’ from here on) build. The basic premise for the Firebird Set is simple and cool with how it works with fire. Of course, it could be better but that is neither here nor there far as I am concerned. What I want is a set for cold builds in general that would allow my RoF build to compete at least on the same level as the Firebird builds.Set should be a 7 piece set with bonuses at the 2, 3, 4, and 6 piece markers. This allows you up to 1 off piece or 2 with a Ring of Royal Grandeur (‘RoRG’). The slots utilized would be the same as with the Firebird set. For me, my two off pieces are Frostburn Gauntlets and a Light of Grace.
Set Bonuses:
- 2-pieces: Upon taking fatal damage, encases the Wizard in an Ice Block for 3 seconds healing them to full health. 5 minute cooldown. (same purpose as the meteor revive with the Firebird set)
- 4-pieces:
- 6-pieces: An aura of cold is projected for 40 yards around the wizard slowing all enemies movement and attack speed by 20%. Increases damage taken from cold spells by all enemies within the aura by 500%. (this would be a separate multiplier which your damage is multiplied against after all other damage modifiers are calulated, the competitive bonus of the set)
Now with that said, to promote variety I feel individual set pieces should have special secondary effects that benefits different wizard spells to promote a variety of viable cold builds with the set.
Cold Spells available to the Wizard most likely to be used as primary damage:
- Ray Of Frost - All Runes
- Arcane Orb - Frozen Orb
- Blizzard - All Runes except Apocalypse
- Twister - Mistral Breeze
- Hydra - Frost Hydra
- Explosive Blast - Obliterate
- Meteor - Comet
Individual Set Item Secondary Bonuses:
- Shoulders: Increases the radius of your Blizzard to 30 yards. Does not affect Apocalypse rune. (This is the same radius as the apocalypse rune, but lets you use the other cold runes.)
- Gloves: The duration of your Blizzard is now doubled. (You won’t need to spam Blizzard as much and doubles the damage it does by doubling the time it deals damage over with the same tick rate and tick value as normal Blizzard.)
- Boots: Ray of Frost gains the effects of all runes except Sleet Storm. (Unless it is made to both channel a Sleet Storm about you and shoot a blue lazer beam at the same time, though that would be rather OP in my opinion.)
- Helm: Frost Hydra now breaths a cone twice as long and 50% wider. OR You can now have an additional 1-2 Frost Hydras active at the same time. (The second option would be stackable with Serpent Sparker so you could potentially have up to 4 Frost Hydras active at once.)
- Chest: Frozen Orb’s radius is doubled. (A wider area to make it a better means of clearing large open areas, A great spell to team up with Blizzard and/or Frost Hydras)
- Legs: Twister now travels to target location and circles about it. (There are times when you do not want your Twister to wander about at random.)
- Source: Meteor and Explosive Blast have 50% larger impact radius. (Make them a more practical ability for spamming when in large open spaces.)
General Appearance:
Now I am no artist, but the picture I have in my head is that the set should invoke images of a master of cold perhaps a snow white wizard with white robes, pale complexion tinged with blue, with midnight black hair or snow white hair. The main robe lined in fur, but no icicles for this Wizard for he/she is not one to stand still, but is always in motion like a furious snow storm. Being a guy I envision the female robes having a seductive cut to them, yet covering all the right places and a gauzy appearance around the arms and sparkling with diamons and sapphires. For the male, It should present some eye candy for the ladies, no need to maintain a double standard after all, but it should also cover the right places. Perhaps be open on the frost of the chest piece and long cloak like on the back. Again the robes should be tastefully accented with diamonds and sapphires aiding to impart a cold and aloof appearance.What does everything think? Side note, the Firebird set could use secondary affects like this I described above to promote diversity in building for the Firebird set.
It goes without saying that many of the above ideas will need changing. A large number of legendaries we have now did not exist when I made this post back in 2016. Among the changes since then:
- Frostburn - generic cold damage gloves
- Mantle of Channeling - generic buff to damage while channeling things
- Light of Grace - Ray of Frost now pierces
- Etched Sigil - our channeled spells now cast our other spenders
- Ranslor’s Folly - Twisters now suck enemies in
- Energy Twister Wicked Wind - Twister no longer moves but spins stationary
And many more changes. As such whatever is done will need some discussion to update this idea. That is of course, if Blizzard even considers this and not some other aspect of the Wizard class to make a set for.
Ideas and discussion welcome.