Is is now clear that spell damage AND casting speed are both based on weapon damage and speed.
Let's take an example: Suppose I have a wizard and I want to calculate how much damage I can do with, say, meteor. For simplicity, let's assume that meteor does 200% weapon damage and costs 60 arcane power.
- Scenario 1: I equip an sword with 100 damage and 1 attack per second. I can cast 1 meteor every second, each dealing 200 damage. I have a total damage output of 200dps for a cost of 60 arcane power per second.
- Scenario 2: I equip a dagger with 50 damage and 2 attacks per second. I can cast 2 meteors every second, each dealing 100 damage. I have a total damage output of 200dps, but now at the cost of 120 arcane power per second.
My question is: is arcane power adjusted on the weapon speed? And side question: for channeling spells, will the damage output also be the same?
It seems clear to me that if you want to play channeling spells (like disintegration), slow weapons really look better because the arcane cost with a weapon half as fast will be half as much.
Edit: I've seen this post: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4662476854. There are a lot of strong arguments about why wizards should prefer slow weapons.