This guy is a little hard to watch because he chatters so fast and probably has the metabolism of a shrew. However, he makes some of the most valuable D3 guides on the intarweb. In this discussion, he explains the overlooked value of area damage. (A bit NSFW – language. Also Excel spreadsheet alert.)
It seems to me that this would be especially valuable for a character like the monk or barbarian. For the purpose of explaining the math and application, he’s speaking of one hit at a time and one small 10-yard area at a time, but you can easily work out how powerful this can be for a toon that’s hitting multiple enemies with very rapid bursts. I have pretty much ignored area damage, but I’ll be taking it more seriously from now on.
In a future post:
How I’m trying to make my original wizard Torment 10 viable. Lots of trial and error so far — mostly error. But I’m going to steal some ideas from the guy above and others. As I hope to point out, wizards must have crowd control to survive in T10 and 40ish-plus greater rifts. I need some combination of control, safety, and damage equal to or greater than the stunlocking/teleporting build of my alt wiz. I will share that here as soon as I have something definitive.
Excel spreadsheets are always how I like to pass my leisure time….