Builds – Wizard Critical Mass Inferno Build Post 1.0.3 – Archon Slow Time
Level Requirement: 60
Build thanks to archon.
This particular build was very popular in the first days of Diablo 3. The developers changed the Critical Mass skill to make it almost useless but since patch 1.0.3, the passive regained some of its functionality.
Right now it is again a popular build and combined with a high crit chance it creates a lot of opportunities for some interesting builds including a no CD Archon setup. This particular build will focus on continuously freezing enemies with the help of Frost Nova.
Let’s begin with a quick line up of the skills and runes in the build:
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Left Mouse Button – Spectral Blade with Healing Blades rune
Right Mouse Button - Energy Twister with Wicked Wind rune
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Action Key 1 – Diamond Skin with the Crystal Shell rune
Action Key 2 – Frost Nova with the Cold Snap rune
Action Key 3 – Archon with the Slow Time rune
Action Key 4 – Energy Armor with the Prismatic Armor rune
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Passive Skill 1: Blur
Passive Skill 2: Critical Mass
Passive Skill 3: Evocation
The Mechanics Of The Build:
What was not mentioned in the introduction is the fact that this build is more of a melee setup. The build will work flawlessly for close encounters. Frost Nova will keep all enemies in one place completely powerless as they are frozen. Cold Snap reduces the cooldown of the skill to 9 seconds but it is not enough. This is where Critical Mass comes to assist. With a high enough chance to crit, the CD of Frost Nova will be reset fast enough to keep the monsters frozen continuously.
As a main attack we will use the Spectral Blade with the Healing Blades rune. Since we are going to engage into melee range combat, a bit of healing will help. However, as we move to the second main skill we need to get back to Critical Mass. The cooldown reduction effect needs to get the required crits from a skill. This calls for Energy Twister and since we will keep the monsters frozen in one spot, Wicked Wind will prevent the tornados from moving.
Next we have the Archon skill. The cooldown of this ability will go down so fast that it will make it available in 10 seconds after the previous usage. Critical Mass makes it an overpowered skill but there are situations in which the Twisters lose their effectiveness or the freeze effect of Frost Nova does not work as intended. For these situations we need some survival skills.
The Wizard is not meant to soak up a lot of damage but it does have some helpful skills. This time we will use Diamon Skin with the Crystal Shell and Energy Armor with the Prismatic Armor rune for some extra resistances.
Like we mentioned above, the build requires a decent gear setup. Around 45% crit chance should be enough to make it work. Resistances also need to be taken seriously due to the play style imposed by the build. At least 800 resist to all is required. To make it a bit easier to manage, getting a weapon with some life on hit will help recover some HP without praying for a health globe.
His stats.
His weapon/2nd hand.
build in action.
Popular Terms
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