Should we use slow or fast weapon on the wizard?

Question

Should I max out DPS, or damage? I like arcane orb.

Will the amount of damage enemies get depend on damage or dps?

Does slow but big damage weapon better than fast and low damage weapon if DPS is the same?

Note: My understanding is that I agree with all the answer. Pick high damage weapon.

However, according to http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/06/16/five-diablo-iii-wizard-myths-tested-and-debunked/, only blizzard is not affected by attack speed. In fact, ias (improved attack speed) works so well, that blizzard (the company, not the skill) decide to nerf it.

The article also said that equipping ias (improved attack speed) will increase hydra damage. It seems that dps is the one that's used instead of "damage".

Answer 1

It really depends on what your doing, and having the right weapon for the right job.

Hard hitting, slow weapons are applicable for spells which are not dependent on attack speed. This is a good amount of the Wizard's abilities. Such popular abilities include (but not limited to)

• Arcane Orb
• Hydra
• Blizzard
• Meteor
• Wave of Force

These abilities benefit from harder hitting weapons with the only downside being a slow unfront cast speed. The cast speed just means how fast you can start running (or casting) again after firing the spell. In Inferno difficulties this is actually quite important if you plan on kiting.

Quick weapons are applicable for spells which you cast a lot of in a short amount of time, and benefit from getting quantity over quality. The popular abilities include (but not limited to)

• All signature abilities
• Disintegrate

Signature abilities are great for getting your arcane power back up in order to cast the hard hitters again. As mentioned previously, the faster casting speed is also vital in being able to kite, even with the arcane guzzling abilities.

Basically, pick the right tool for the right job (or what goes with the build you want).

(To directly answer your question, all spells do their damage based on your weapon damage (plus modifiers), not the weapon's listed DPS).

Answer 2

I haven't played a wizard myself, but I found this guide on Reddit recently suggesting that slow, two-handed weapons are superior for wizards.

Although signature spells (the ones that don't cost mana) are improved by faster weapons, this excerpt should indicate why slower weapons are better for the more damaging wizard spells:

For spells like Blizzard, Meteor, Wave of Force and Explosive Blast, the mace will flat-out deal more damage per activation. With Blizzard, for example, each "tick" of damage simply takes the average of your Damage range, multiplies it by 210%, divides by 6 and then hits for that amount once per second for 6 seconds. These spells do not take the weapon's attack speed into consideration at all when factoring their damage. All that matters is the base Damage range on the weapon.

Answer 3

I would like to add that things are more complicated. That's because some spells are bounded by cooldown.

Basically blizzard modify those spells that they are affected by attack speed.

Hydra, for example. Not sure about other spells such as avalanche