Wizard CDR builds?

Question

So I've been looking to improve my Wizard's survivability in Inferno. I've looked into a group of Wizard builds called CDR (Cooldown Reduction) builds, whose primary skills are Critical Mass and Frost Nova.

There seems to have been a lot of success with this build, but also Blizzard seems to have nerfed it substantially (Magic Weapon/Venom, Living Lightning, etc. Can anyone confirm a list of these which are nerfed??).

Does anyone know of any currently working CDR builds?

I've read this article, but it seems to use the nerfed skills in 1.0.3.

Answer 1

There are a number of Builds that revolve around Critical Mass. Check out this reddit

http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo3Strategy

Search for Melee Wizard (Below is the link to one of the articles about that build)

http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo3Strategy/comments/vsrxg/wizard_making_the_push_from_blizzhydra_to_melee/

This build requires a decently high crit chance (over 25%) in order to make your cool downs reset fast enough to spam Frost Nova/Diamond Skin. Otherwise, it seems like a fun build, give it a shot and see what you think :)

Note: I am not currently using this build, but am considering a move to the melee wizard soonish.

Answer 2

I've been recently trying out the melee wizard "windup" build featured here. The site posted some starter gear recommendations to give it a try on the cheap, but you do need at least ~25% crit chance to start using it effectively. I don't run it all the time, but it's a fun build.

Taken from windupwizard.com, here's the standard build:

Left Mouse: Energy Twister / Wicked Wind

Right Mouse: Energy Armor / Prismatic Armor

Active Skills: Frost Nova / Bone Chill, Diamond Skin / Crystal Shell, , Explosive Blast / Chain Reaction, Teleport / Fracture,

Passives: Critical Mass, Unstable Anomaly, Temporal Flux

Order is important so you can rapidly hit Frost Nova/Diamond Skin/Explosive Blast sequence. Build calc on the game guide: here.