Diablo® III

I was looking at Ray of Frost and noticed the rune unlocked at level 28 - Cold Blood.

This reduces the cost of RoF to 0.

Would it be viable to have a build where you use RoF as your "signature" spell instead of the normal ones, freeing up a slot for another arcane spender, or am I missing something that would stop you from trying this?

Yes, it would be.

I've already seen a couple of posted builds with Cold Blood RoF and no signatures, you're not the first to notice :D

the rune reduces it to 12, not 0

Nope, it reduces it to 0 AP.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#Z!!b

Seems like thats true. it will reduce the AP cost to zero, effectively making this a pretty nice 'signature spell'.

It is true that it will cost 0. AND it will be a amazing singel target, i will almost see a most have for hard singel mobs. But since it is not a signatur, it does not benifit from runes as prodigy.
i would still take it, but i would also have Electrocute(for a fast good aoe with prodig can make some good AP)

The site is probably buggy. It shouldn't say 0.

If it looks too good to be true, then it usually is. Im hoping for it to be true, but I doubt it.

0 AP for vanilla RoF doesnt seem too good to me... In most builds Id probably rather pick a signature anyway and rune RoF with some nice rune instead.

The minimal amount of offensive spells is 2, you will always want at least one :

*Single Target
*AoE

In most common wiz builds you will see 3 because of the relatively low dmg of the signature skills,therefor the all purpose of using sig spell is just restoring AP for the more powerful spells (unless ur going the arcane dynamo route).

So having the ability to take just 2 powerful spells without hurting your AP spender is invaluable.

If Cold Blood is indeed 0 AP it's gonna be insanely good.

Hello.

Maybe I should make this clear once and for all.

All other classes have more or less easy ways to produce high continuous single target damage. Around 200% and more is doable for all other classes, and that without the fear to run out of juice.

Barb with Onslaught: 194% fury generator + damage boost skills (he has a lot)
DH with Punctering Arrow: 230% for this hatred generator + X
Monk: 140% Hundred fists with one million buffs and debuffs and etra bonus through Exploding Palm dot, what ever you want to combine.
WD: Pets+ Splinters or+dot haunt or what ever you want to combine.

Now Wiz.......hmmm.... not really a dot class or debuffer so combination is off. Buffs yes but only small compared to barb or monk. The only high damage spammable single target skill wiz has is the dam Ray of Frost. If you try to go for a low AP build you would end up with no !@#$ing viable dps as you have no way to support the high ap cost for the skill longer than a few second. I'm not 100% sure it will be 0 AP but what ever number it must be really close or under the basic AP reg or the wiz becomes a bad joke for any boss fights compared to other classes.

It is not a huge bonus it is more the only way to cope with the lack of single target dps for boss fights. Okay now you eill tell all the cool ways how to do it other ways and I will show you all the backlash you will get for it. We need this dam rune.

Think about the dh killing the boss twice as fast and now ask yourself do you really want to argue?

It used to be 9 or 12 in the beta. I did not check in the last 2 patches, but nothing seemed to change there.

as I remember corectly signuture spells not only "dont spent your arcane power" they also help to fill your power when you use it. imo at lvl 28 propably you ll need to support your regenation of arcane power, so ıt doesnt have the best choice even its not use any arcane power. ( I test ray of frost in beta but I didnt satisfy about it, maybe thats why I m saying like this. lets just wait and see, most of our discusion will be pointless and funny when the game relase ) :)

I'm not 100% sure it will be 0 AP but what ever number it must be really close or under the basic AP reg or the wiz becomes a bad joke for any boss fights compared to other classes.

How about you do the math on the wizard rotation combining signature spells, RoF and arcane dynamo before you call wizard a bad joke.

Hello.

Puca did you really read and understand my post?

Yes I very well know about AD and RoF but you will not be able to support it longer than a few seconds without a massive AP setup and gear if you do not use this rune. Thats only my point. This rune is important for many setups. It is not overpowered but needed.

Not every build uses a high AP approach and so would be in a very bad place for any boss encounter.

And I did not call the wiz in general a joke. It was a specific comparison for a wiz with 150% single target dmage and a dh sitting next to him with 300% continuous damage.

03/05/2012 08:06Posted by Rhaloz

Yes I very well know about AD and RoF but you will not be able to support it longer than a few seconds without a massive AP setup and gear if you do not use this rune.

03/05/2012 08:06Posted by Rhaloz

And I did not call the wiz in general a joke. It was a specific comparison for a wiz with 150% single target dmage and a dh sitting next to him with 300% continuous damage.

I don't think you should be talking about wizard dps, because you clearly do not understand it. Let me help you.

Arcane missile+charged blast = 143% per second.

RoF+snow blast = ((215+280)/2 * 1.5 + 280 * 8.5)/10 = 275% per second.

Since we can channel RoF from full AP for 10 seconds, the overall rotation dps is (143+275)/2 = 209% (which is about what you would get with cold blood alone).

If we can cast missile fast enough to stack dynamo to 5 in 10 seconds, the overall rotation dps is:

(143 + 275*1.75)/2 = 312.125%.

Wizard single target is fine, l2math.

Incidentally, DH sustained AoE is awful.

Hello.

PUCA!

read my posts more deeply!

Pls do not start to talk about dps. If you ad attack speed to the table you will lose this battle faster than RoF-Snow Blast eats your AP.

You may not habe been infromed but increased attack speed does also increase the resource consumption of channeled skills. Meaning double speed double consumption. Your AP will be gone in no time while the dam dh can play its game all day and night.

And to come back to the base problem: NOT everybody goes for an high AP approach. They would never be able to support it without a lower AP rune. That is just my point!

I know my math very well and I bet I know more about the game mechanics as you do, so pls stop attacking me like this.

Pls do not start to talk about dps. If you ad attack speed to the table you will lose this battle faster than RoF-Snow Blast eats your AP.

You may not habe been infromed but increased attack speed does also increase the resource consumption of channeled skills. Meaning double speed double consumption. Your AP will be gone in no time while the dam dh can play its game all day and night.

Let's say your attack speed is such that everything is twice as fast (incredibly unlikely). So we get 143%*2 for 10 seconds to regen AP from empty to full, for a total of 283% of the magic missile part of the cycle. And you get 275%*1.75*2 = 962.5% during the AP drain part of the cycle (which will last 5 seconds, since you are channeling twice as quickly).

The overall rotation dps is now (283*2 + 962.5)/3 = 509.3%, which is admittedly less than 312.125% * 2 = 624.25%.

So we established that channel wizard does not scale with attack speed very well. However:

(a) even channel wizard does scale with attack speed
(b) diamond skin+prism is extremely strong here
(c) channel wizards can stack slow weapons and damage over attack speed when gearing
(d) wizard AP regen works very well while kiting while DH resource regen plummets because they need to use builders to get good hatred regen
(e) What is above is a sustained rotation. Practical wizard dps is better than above because they can start challenging packs from full AP with dynamo stacked
(f) you still have no clue what you are talking about -- not a single bit of math from you

Hello.

03/05/2012 16:54Posted by Puca

Let's say your attack speed is such that everything is twice as fast (incredibly unlikely)

/facepalm

Right.....2 attacks per second.....incredibly unlikely.

03/05/2012 16:54Posted by Puca

(f) you still have no clue what you are talking about -- not a single bit of math from you

This does indeed end this discussion for me.

Same topic, discussed and explained #US forum:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4837193725