Diablo 3 Wizard Leveling GuideIn this Diablo 3 Wizard leveling guide, you will be getting the best general tips and strategies for leveling up your Wizard quickly and easily in Diablo 3.
The focus of this D3 Wiz leveling guide will be tips and strategies for leveling quickly. The key is to be doing level-appropriate content, performing the most experience-efficient tasks, having the right equipment, and using the right builds.
Diablo 3 Wizard Leveling Tips – Experience Points SystemThe most important thing for speed leveling in Diablo 3 is to fight against level-appropriate enemies. Here is how it works:
Each enemy has a “base” amount of experience points. Big, hard to kill enemies tend to offer more experience points than weaker, swarming enemies. Swarming enemies still tend to award more experience for taking out the whole pack than larger enemies.
The base amount of experience points is then based off of a comparison of your level to the enemy’s level. You get a small amount of bonus points for fighting enemies up to three levels higher than you, and you get a small experience penalty for fighting enemies 2-3 levels lower than you.
Once you get to be 4+ levels above an enemy, the experience point penalty you experience is massive. Once you are 10 levels above an enemy you no longer get experience points for defeating that enemy.
This applies to gear which adds monster experience per kill as well. If you have +100 experience earned per kill, this +100 experience is applied to enemies of equal level. This bonus experience can be penalized if you are a higher level than an opponent. For example if you are 5 levels higher than an enemy, you will not get anywhere near +100 bonus experience for taking it out, regardless of gear.
As a result, the sweet spot for experience points is for your enemies’ level is +/- three levels. If you fight enemies that are four levels higher than you, you do not earn any extra bonus experience points for this and your killing speed will be slower due to the high level of the enemy.
Furthermore, damage mitigation is based on level, so if you are fighting enemies that are a much higher level than you, you will deal less damage. As a result, I prefer to find enemies that are within two levels, particularly fighting down a level or two so that you are a level or two higher than an opponent.
Diablo 3 Wizard Leveling Guide – Bosses & QuestsAnother reason you want to fight enemies around your level is that by progressing through the game and taking out bosses and completing quests, you will earn large amounts of experience points. For example, taking out the Skeleton King in Act 1 gives you just over 5,000 experience points, which is the equivalent of taking out ~75 regular enemies that are of the Skeleton King’s level.
As a result, you as a Wizard leveling up in Diablo 3, you should stick to questing through acts and difficulty modes which feature monsters that are about your level. This seems to be the fastest all-around way to level up. Farming bosses for the bonus experience points from quest completion general is more efficient than taking our hordes of enemies, unless fighting your way to those bosses does not involve fighting many enemies.
The most important thing though is fighting level-appropriate enemies. Here are the level ranges your Wizard should be for each difficulty mode:
Normal: Levels 1-29
Nightmare: Levels 30-50
Hell: Levels 50-60
Inferno: Level 60 only
With that in mind, progressing through the game is straight-forward. However, you can level up quicker by using the right builds and the right equipment. This will allow you to kill enemies faster and hence level up quicker.
Diablo 3 Wizard Leveling Guide – BuildsThe builds section is at least as long as this D3 Wizard leveling guide. A quick summary is that for solo play i recommend grabbing one skill for AoE damage, one skill for single-target damage, one Signature spell (no Arcane Power cost), one Armor, and two escape abilities.
For group play, you can ditch your Signature spell and escape abilities and focus entirely on buffing your own damage and the group’s damage. Other classes in the group will be able to buff your armor and survivability as well, allowing you to ditch the Armor spell as well should you choose to do so.
Diablo 3 Wizard Leveling Tips – EquipmentEquipment for the Wizard is very simple: max out Damage, Intelligence, and Vitality. Damage and Intelligence are the easiest ways to increase the strength of your skills and Vitality is the easiest way to increase your survivability.
If you are having trouble with living or your gear is under-par, consider using a shield. If your survivability is good, I recommend using a nice, slow two-handed weapon rather than using a Wand and an Orb.
The reason for this is that while slower 2-handed weapons might have slightly lower damage than a Wand/Orb combo, slower 2-handed weapons make the most out of Arcane Power regeneration. Think about it this way:
Two-handed Maces in particular are the best since they have a default attack speed of .90 attacks per second. This means that you can cast 9 spells in 10 seconds. When you channel Ray of Frost then, you will spend 180 Arcane Power over 10 seconds (9 * 20 = 180).
Given your default Arcane Power regeneration is 10 per second, you will generate 100 Arcane Power during those 10 seconds. This means that you can channel Ray of Frost for 10 seconds straight with a two-handed Mace and only spend 80 net Arcane Power.
Compare that to a Wand which deals 1.4 attacks per second. In 10 seconds, Ray of Frost will go off 14 times, which will cost you 280 Arcane Power. During this time, you regenerate 100 Arcane Power, for a net cost of 180 Arcane Power, more than twice the cost of a slower weapon!
In this situation, a .9 attacks per second weapon can channel Ray of Frost for about 12 seconds before running out of Arcane Power whereas a fast Wand can only channel for about 5 seconds before running out of Arcane Power. This makes two-handers superior for Wizards in terms of their damage output and Arcane Power efficiency.
You can learn more about the right stats and gear to get for your Wizard in the previously posted Wizard Stats guide.
Diablo 3 Wizard Leveling GuideLeveling up your Wizard boils down to repeating level-appropriate boss quests in Diablo 3 in order to get the experience points not only for killing enemies but for completing big boss quests.
Using the right build and equipment will significantly increase your killing speed and hence your leveling speed, so be sure to keep these Diablo 3 Wizard leveling tips in mind so you pick the right build and gear for your character.
