Well… you are asking the wrong person, I guess. I’m a solo-only player who really hates to play seasons (didn’t even test the upcoming theme, just what they did to Firebird). I just do it to unlock the rewards, mostly… because I know I can’t compete as a solo player. Not that I care, I give a damn about leaderboards, multiplayer or what is the current META. I play a little here and there and do it to relax, not to compete. And I mostly (99% of the time) stick to wizards since pretty much day one.
So, if I tell you all that and you go and look at my current paragon it is obvious that I’m one hell of a lazy punk, given that I haven’t even reach 4k yet.
So asking me for a good build or good mechanic is a little pointless. It also depends on personal taste, but you asked… so let me at least answer, although it will be me ranting quite a bit.
All I can say is that I don’t enjoy mechanics that are overly complicated or require a ton of micromanaging or those that feel “slapped together without real reason”…
Let me give you an example:
Hydra (Typhons Veil)
Okay this set should have potential. Place Hydra, avoid getting hit, pets do damage. Hm. So the character is passive in terms of damage and the pets do their work. Seems easy. Now here comes… Deathwish… a perfect item in this situation to support our snakes, because channeling buffs all damage and Hydra benefits. You won’t need to attack the target, just channel somewhere. Pretty simple, no? And the issue… people said “booring, Deathwish again, no more channeling, booooh… and btw, Bazooka is bad, fix it!”
So the devs destroyed Etched Sigil, nerfed Deathwish with a 1 second cast delay, changed Fragment of Destiny to all signature skills (good) and let Hydra gain a stacked buff. Egh, pkay, so you need to constanly land hits now, which means a bit more active playstyle, but those hits do zilch. Not to mention the buff to Hydra is weaker in terms compared to Deathwish - the mechanic is just more annoying. Then to top it off, they change Etched Sigil to Twisters and slap an orphaned skill (Blizzard) on Winter Flurry that makes things even more nasty, with another condition to buff Hydra. What the f*** did they smoke? This is not fun, it’s disjointed and feels both strange and unfitting and way to forced (to remove channeling). Keep in mind, the buff to Hydra on WF is way more complicated and still only on the level of Etched Sigil. Is this fun? NOPE, at least not in my book.
So, just an example - imagine this instead:
Change to Deathwish:
AT/RoF/Dis deal 325% more damage every second, stacking up to five times. Hydra heads now attack with your channeling skills when you do.
Not saying I would have done that but in a nutshell this would have killed off Bazooka and linked channeling and Hydra. Now it makes sense to channel, you need to attack actively and your Hydras would target what you do. Just an example… it would work in Typhons, it would work with LoD/LoN… Typhons is stronger, though.
Then let’s see… Winter Flurry… yeah right. Screams cold. This one should have simply been “Cold skills deal XXX% more damage. Enemies hit or killed by cold have a chance to release your Frost Nova.”
But if they REALLY want to make that one Hydra, then we just need to look at the Magistrate, an existing Hydra item, to find a skill that can be used instead of Blizzard:
“Enemies hit by Frost Nova take XXX% more damage from you for X seconds. This effect is doubled for your pets.”
See what happens then? Not saying it would be perfect then but at least it would make way more sense.
But now for those who say… boohoo Hydra + channeling, we don’t want to channel any longer… yeah, heard you. Now, what? Let’s see:
Fragment of Destiny… now this one has potential, but the devs did NOTHING to make this one fit the picture. It sticks out like a sore thumb. Pretty much looks like a band-aid that too small to cover the wound.
So, let me ask… why did they make a link between signature skills and Hydra and just stop there? Just to add a condition so that we cannot use Deathwish? Huh, then at least make FoD strong enough to outmatch the sword. What kind of crap is this… not to mention Signature skills feel disjointed since Typhon, the Hydra set, has nothing to do with them, or Blizzard. Those two are just useless annoyances we have to spam to make Hydra stronger. In return this robs us of our mobility because, you know… movement speed where? Can I use Aetherwalker? Ouch.
If they link our signature skills to Hydra, then for Pete’s sake make those skills at least part of the damage. Buff them on Typhons so that an item like Fragments makes actually sense. I would go even further.
If Typhons is a pet set (and you bet it is, the set only buffs Hydra atm) then it should be exactly that. I would look at our orphaned skill Mirror Images now. Remember? The one they axed on Firebirds. How about we migrate them to Typhons and have them stay close and attack with our signature skills when we do. Let that be a legendary or a set effect, whatever… just do something meaningful and we are talking. This is your active non-channeling build right there. Now FoD with Signature skills and Hydra makes sense and works in our favor. And you won’t channel… perfect. And you don’t feel bored, since you know… your own attacks actually make your Mirror Images attack and they also deal damage. A bit like Simulacrum/Masquerade. Stolen? Well, maybe, but if it works…
So, let’s say I don’t actually have an existing wizard build I really like. If anything I liked Mirror Images as a concept. Not necessarily every little thing, but that build could have worked as a concept. Had they improve on the AI a little, reduced the damage and made them part of a set. I think I would be happy.
Oops, a bit lenghtier than I thought… so there you have it, even if this has strayed offtopic quite a bit.