Frostillicus - Cold Blooded Wizard

[420]

Frostillicus - Cold Wizard (Updated)


Concept
This is another build based on one of my Diablo II characters, a Blizzard based sorceress named "Frostzillicus"(sic).

The Diablo III version, "Frostillicus", was the fifth character I made in Diablo III but the first of my characters to reach level 60. So, yeah, she's badass, just like her Diablo II counterpart. While Frostillicus's brother, AetherRend, aspires to be a PvP Wizard (more about him later), Frostillicus is more interested in turning demons into pretty ice sculptures and then shattering them.

Build: Skills

Profile: Frostillicus


Weapons

Primary: Wand/Source or Staff (whichever does more damage).

Secondary: Wand/Shield


Strategy
Items and skills focus mainly on offense. Items with high Intelligence and Critical Hit Chance. For some reason she also ended up with a large amount of "Melee Attackers Take Damage" (currently at 847 damage per hit which just happens to go well with the damage from Ice Armor + Jagged Ice rune).

Defense relies almost solely on Vitality (I try to maintain a 2 Intelligence to 1 Vitality ratio) and the resists that naturally come from a high Intelligence.

Passive Skills: I decided not to go with a full "nuke" build (ie no Glass Cannon) and instead focus on boosting all aspects of combat evenly. So the passive skills increase max Arcane Power, Arcane Power /life  regeneration, melee damage reduction, and damage (with this build every target is either "chilled" or "frozen", even Diablo*).

Before Combat: Just cast Ice Armor and you are good to go for four minutes with the Galvanizing Ward passive skill.

Entering Combat: Cast Hydra (Frost Hydra rune), Meteor (Comet rune), and Blizzard (Frozen Solid rune) on the target, in that order. Blizzard will freeze some targets in place, maximizing the Comet rune's "freezing mist" damage.

Combat:  Liberally spray Ray of Frost (Cold Blooded rune) while alternating between Meteor and Blizzard. (Note: The damage from multiple Blizzard's cast in the same location does not stack! So, if you cast Blizzard multiple times try to have minimal overlap with other Blizzards already in effect.). Only one Hydra can be active at a time and it's relatively cheap (15 Arcane Power) so just recast it whenever/wherever it's needed.

When the enemy closes in, cast Frost Nova (Frozen Mist rune) and run to a safe distance then go back to bombarding the target.


Preferred Follower
I went with the Templar follower just to take advantage of his Inspire skill's Arcane Power regeneration boost with the idea that a good offense is the best defense.



Here is the basic idea behind the build:

Diablo II Skill -> Diablo III Equivalent

Glacial Spike -> Ray of Frost
Blizzard -> Blizzard
Frozen Orb* -> Meteor
Frost Nova* -> Frost Nova
Shiver Armor -> Ice Armor
Cold Mastery -> Cold Blooded

*My Diablo II character didn't actually use these skills but I threw them in because my Diablo III build does use skills that are similar.

*Here is a pic of a chilled Diablo before battle, poor bastard doesn't know he's already dead.




-420


EDIT: (8/24/12) Added "Preferred Follower".

EDIT: (10/26/12) Updated for patches 1.0.4 and 1.0.5

[Mo]

She's sporting a serious Amulet there.

[cuchulann]

Your staff ought to have flyers and public notices hanging off it.

[420]

Your staff ought to have flyers and public notices hanging off it.

That must be why people keep trying to insert gold coins into it!

-420

[420]

Update!

Frostillicus's build has been updated for patches 1.0.4 and 1.05. (Only change is that the Passive Skill Galvanizing Ward was replaced with Blur.)

-420