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My wizard is pretty squishy, I usually put on Diamond Skin, but if an enemy deals more damage than it can absorb or if Diamond Skin is on cooldown my health goes down very quickly. If my health potions are on cooldown as well my only choice is to run away and hope the enemies are not fast enough to catch me.
Is avoiding damage in the first place the only effective way, or are there effective healing options for a wizard?
As far as I know your healing options are limited, even with a Mythic Potion (12,500 life) there's not much chance of survival if you get up close and personal. I'd suggest looking into getting some life per hit on your items, which outclasses life per kill.
Also, put on Galvanizing Ward as passive if you not have done so already, it adds another 310 life per second (as long as you have an armor skill active). And as jzn mentions, there is also the Blood Magic rune on Magic Weapon which adds another 1.5% damage as life per hit.
Either way, everything pretty much 1-hits you in Inferno from act 1 onward unless you become a vitality-only Wizard. I know the same applies to Demon Hunter, and probably to Witch Doctor too.
Try to focus on DPS, not life, and you will stand a chance: kill them, before they can ever reach you.
Well, lets look at your options:
Life on Hit: Every hit gives you a percentage of your Loh based on which attack you used. If your attack CAN hit multiple targets(even if it doesnt), it usually has an awful coefficient. For example blizzard gives you I think 0.05% of your life on hit. Hydra gives you 0%. arcane orb gives you like 60% or 40% if you rune for it to go through people, so all in all its pretty poor.
In the end, it helps and might be good for some builds, but for most it just is underwhelming. Don't avoid the stat, but I wouldn't sacrifice muchf or it.
Life Leech
Same deal, same coefficients, + 80% reduction for inferno. Again, hardly noticable..helps a little sometimes but just isnt that good. For example I did the raknaroth cheese strat where you stay at under 30% armor and make it so you can never die. It took almost the entire fight for life on hit to push me up the few % needed for him to kill me.
Life over time
Probably my favorite. It's slow but it works well with kiting -- You're constantly healing, so if you get hit you just need to be a little more careful for a little bit of time. The main drawback is there is a pretty solid cap on how much damage you can take, so you'll never be able to "upgrade" to the point of sitting in a bunch of damage and healing your way through it a way a monk can.
Honorable mention: Plus healing globe health
I somehow got like +10k to my health globes, so if I see one its pretty much a full heal. Really nice, but not something you can depend on.
Force Armor with Galvanizing Ward gives you a steady stream of (310hp/sec) health regen that lets you get away with using too many potions. It has saved me on multiple occasions also, during longer kiting sessions vs. some Champion/Elite packs that you are unable to outrun (innately fast enemies with the Fast affix, for example).
When you are kiting, you will want to double pack the route you just came from, so you can pick up any Health Globes left behind enemies you killed. Also when you kill enemies, don't pick up the globes when you don't absolutely have to, see your health and learn how fast FA regens. Take a mental note where you left globes and use it to your advantage while kiting. When you have a lot vitality, you can opt to pick up some item that gives you a boost to how much health globes heal you.
And lastly the obvious, stack up on Mythic Potions (12,500hp), use one as soon as you've lost a bit over 12,5k to keep you topped, so when you have lost more, it will be up again sooner.
In the end it comes down to your ability to avoid damage, and the sense proactively activate Diamond Skin / Teleport / Mirror Image, when you know you will be taking a hit.
All are valid choices, however, no one pointed out life on hit, which with certain bulds can be a very reliable way of healing. Evety hit, aka, evera time any of your damage is dealt to any enemy, you get healed for the amount of loh you have.
Play with friends. Let them tank. You shoot from far. Best advice I can give.
With barb I tank. I don't die. The other guys do the killing.
