Characteristics | Wizard Diablo III Guide
Last update: 01 February 2017
Wizard is one of the most universal classes available in the game and it's also among the most popular ones. Assuming the main character has been developed properly he can face even the most challenging opponents on the highest difficulty settings without having to constantly worry about his life. Sadly all this goodness comes at a price. The beginnings while playing as a Wizard might be unpleasant, because this class becomes uber powerful only after you've advanced to Nightmare and higher levels. This is an entirely different experience from classes which rely on constant contact with enemy units, like a Barbarian or a Monk. The mentioned classes are the most powerful ones early in the game, allowing the player to kill enemy units without any major problems, however they become much worse to play on two of the highest difficulty settings, forcing the player to come in terms with constantly dying and having issues with many monsters. If no mistakes were made while developing a Wizard, then this character will easily advance to the Inferno level.
When it comes to statistics and choosing the right gear, Wizard's most important attribute is definitely Intelligence. This attribute has a lot to say when you want to improve the DPS value (damage per second) done by the spells you cast on the battlefield. Wizards use arcane power as the energy source needed to cast spells. The power is represented by a sphere seen in the bottom right corner of the screen and it regenerates automatically over time. The only spells which don't need this energy source and the "basic" ones. It's also worth adding that if you use proper types of runes along with your skill, then you may improve the regeneration process, for example by generating arcane power points with each successful hit.
An interesting thing to know about the Wizard is how the statistics influence the damage that can be inflicted by the spells. Descriptions provided by the game suggest that the only factor which is taken under consideration is the damage of the weapon the main character is using. This doesn't mean however that you should pay no attention to your gear, for example to rings which increase the attack speed (and also DPS) or to other objects which boost damage. The strength of the spell is counted based on several variables. The formula begins with the weapon damage and it's being multiplied by a percent of the main character's Intelligence and by a percent of the spell's strength. Also - if a weapon is enchanted and therefore grants additional percent it's also added to the equation used to estimate the size of the damage that can be dealt.
The attack speed mentioned earlier on is an important subject. It may seem normal that the increase of the speed of your attack also increases the DPS value. What's less obvious is that depending on which skills you've chosen for your character build it may be different in some cases. Certain skill combinations profit from lowering the attack speed statistic to a minimum in order for the main character to be able to inflict more damage. It all depends on the types of spells Wizard uses. If for some reasons you want to stick with the "basic spells" you should maximize the speed of attacks, because that group of spells doesn't use any arcane power and they can also be casted very rapidly. If you're lucky you can also generate additional damage thanks to various effects provided by the skills and the chances of them happening are raised along with the number of tries.
We already know that it's good to have a weapon which allows fast attacks when it comes to basic spells, because it allows to cast them more often. But what to do if the basic attacks aren't enough for you? Here's where it gets tricky, because some of the more powerful spells won't work as good as planned if they're combined with a fast weapon. For example, if you're using Disintergate spell combined with high attack speed you'll deplete arcane power too soon and you won't be inflicting as much damage as you'd like. As a result it's important that you always know what you want to achieve and what are the "weak points" of the gear you're using. You can't let the items you're carrying to work against you because of combining them with wrong types of skills.