Diablo 3 - Paragon 100 Wizard

Introduction

Finally I reached beginning of the end my Wizard's journey in Diablo 3 ;) Got Paragon 100! I made some nice screenies like straight from Lord of the Rings ;) to honor that moment :)

Diablo 3 Paragon 100 Wizard

Diablo 3 Paragon 100 Wizard

Story

I got into D3 from the first moments I have played. I knew I will be playing Wizard long before game got released. I started my adventure kinda late, because at the 2nd half of December 2012. I had no time for games earlier. It has cons and pros. Lot of bugs got removed, but I have never seen that very difficult Inferno. Now game is just to easy.

Till level 35 (Paragon) I wasn't thinking about typical farm at all. I was playing through whole acts, I was picking up every single item, open every single box and kill every single monster. Game was so fun and even it has some flaws I think D3 is great game. I also spend lot of time on making Achievements.

Diablo 3 Paragon 100 Wizard

At this P35 I made Diablo 3 Exp timer and started thinking about hitting max level. I was looking a lot on the exp counter and figure out where I can get decent exp, but also have lot of fun. I wasn't chasing pure efficiency, because I am not a robot. Game is entertainment and not a boring bot-job. So from beginning till P100 I was picking up every yellow item, gems, tomes etc. It was totally not efficient in terms of exp/h but who cares ;) I love loot! :)

I played mainly at MP5 because I enjoy there the most smashing thousands of monsters. Elites was goin' down in few seconds and I... was not ;) Sometimes I did die. It was kinda good balance between difficulty and having fun.

When patch 1.0.8 got released (increased mob density) I was already at level 80. I knew P100 is so close. I got sick few days later, so I was at home anyway so... :)

Build

Since beginning I loved Disintegrate and Archon and around those 2 skills I made primary builds. At beginning Archon was just my extra power for bosses because I couldn't stay in Archon form for long. With my character getting stronger Archon times got longer and longer.

I tested many build variations. At some point I thought Temporal Flux with Cold Blooded will grant me extra 20% damage at Archon. Well... that's not working that way ;( Finally I spend 90% of my time on that build:

My build in Blizzard's skill Calculator

Runes - Storm Armor's Scramble and Archon's Teleport grant great boost to fast moving. Magic Weapon's Blood Magic grants Life Steal.

When Archon run off and cooldown is still on (it is not that common since patch 1.0.8 - increased mob density) I got 2 skills - Blizzard with reduced mana cost (Snowbound rune) - great for spam whole screen with AoE spell - and Spectral Blade Healing Blades (additional 5% Life Steal) which makes you kinda immortal while tanking.

My goal was to get 300k dps buffed when hit P100 and I got it! :)

I sometimes played CM/WW wiz, I got some extra items for that build but I find it kinda boring. And my hands and wrists! They hurt after hours of spam keys ;) But for soloing Ubers or playing at MP10 CM/WW is irreplaceable.

Drops

Diablo 3 Paragon 100 Wizard

During 525 hours of playing I got 2 decent drops. I am most proud of they amulet I still use:

Diablo 3 Paragon 100 Wizard

Second drop was Zunimassa's Vision with Crit Chance. Sold for 80mil. Got also like 8-10 Rare and Legendary items which got sold for 10-20mil. I am not into spending real money on virtual items so all gold I collected is pure in-game earned. Few times I bought something cheap and sold for much more. In general I don't want waste much time at AH so my mnain income is from selling drops. I am selling every usable item I find. I made much more gold from selling good and medium yellows then legendaries coz legendaries drop in 99% cases with sux stats. After that run from 80 to 100 I got 3 full chars of items waiting to be sold on AH.

I picked up every single Gems and Tomes. Every single gem I got equipped I crafted myself from materials I found. Maybe that's not a big achievement but I enjoy it really and I have next goals coz need some more Topaz and Emeralds ;)

One more thing worth mentioning which I was crazy about is my white hat! :) I think that masks idea in D3 is fail. I have no idea why every top helm is just a mask with string leaving naked head. So stupid for me! I wanted to own some classy hat like Gandalf ;) and after long searching I bought for 15mil this piece! Looks so cool, got very high rolls of good stats and that armor, yay! Maybe it does not make your DPS skyrocket like Mempo but I not gonna switch it for mask with string lol ;)

Diablo 3 Paragon 100 Wizard

When Magic Find and Paragon increase I see more and more drops. Lot of people says MF doesn't work. In my opinion it works very well and I see big difference in number of drops between, let say, Paragon 1 and Paragon 90. Below my example drop from just two Act 1 runes.

Diablo 3 Paragon 100 Wizard

Of course there was also countless number of yellow items. Those Legendaries of course was worth nothing but usually I get 1-5 rares which are worth putting on AH.

Exp route in 1.0.8

To no die from boredom I often was playing through whole acts. When I was focused hard just for exp I was trying to play at as many zones as possible from single act. Playing over and over on 1 map can get you crazy pretty fast.

My favorite and best exp/h runes:
ACT 1
1. Festering Woods (incl. Warrior's Rest and Crypt of the Ancients) - get 4-5 NV
2. If not enough NV go to Leoric's Manor. If got 5NV go to point 3.
3. Fields of Misery (+every extra dungeons there, just NOT Khazra's Den)
4. Weeping Hollow (+every extra dungeons there)
5. Halls of Agony 1 and 2
6. Cursed Hold
7. Halls of Agony 3
8. If I had lot of time on Archon I also kill Butcher

ACT 2
1. Vault of Assasin (only till get 5NV)
2. Dahglur Oasis (+ most of extra dungeons there)
3. Forgotten Ruins
4. Eastern and Western Channel

ACT 3
1. Skycrown Battlements backwards (TP from Stonefort)
2. Stonefort (mainly for Key Warden)
3. Keep Depth 2
4. Rakkis Crossing (backwards)

ACT 4
Whole act from beginning, it is goin' really fast. Important thing is to enter it from Act 3 with 5NV. Since patch 1.0.7 stacks transfer between acts.

That all folks ;) Below there is screen from 1 of my the most hardcore days (lot of hours spend with Diablo 3). Times for exp/h are real times so they include repairs, picking up items, identify and selling, making new games or go out fast for something to eat or WC ;) It is easy to get more exp/h ratio with not pick up items or not goin to WC ;) but I am not robot and I prefer casual playing. My records was like 110-120 exp/h (with pick up yellows). Oh, in the table below, those weird 1 exp/h are just breaks.

Diablo 3 Paragon 100 Wizard

Oh, and here are my profiles:
- Battle.net
- Diablo Progress