Leveled your Wizard to 70 already? It is time to go and get your free set for this season! Here are Wizard builds and tips to help you get your Seasonal Journey and Haedrig’s gifts ASAP! Get to endgame ASAP with Fresh 70 Wizard guide! Not quite there yet? Check our Wizard Leveling Guide.

Curious? We’re going LOD Archon into a speedy Vyr 6 Archon.
then you can branch into any other build.

In Season 28, the Wizard free set is: Typhon’s Veil. While this exact set was buffed this season, it’s just a straight up damage buff which is a little unexciting. For most people, and even newer wizards, we will be leaning on the power of good ‘ol Archon instead.

D3 Season 28 Rites of Sanctuary and YOU. How does it affect?

S28’s unique mechanic is the Altar of Rites. I made a separate Altar of Rites guide because it’s there’s a few choices and timings you want to know about. A basic rundown, though:

The Altar of Rites is unlocked from the get-go. For each node (“seal”) you want to unlock, you need to sacrifice a specific set of items to unlock a seal. These increase in difficulty for each step of the way, regardless of which path you choose. IE, Unlock 5 will cost the same no matter if you went down one path or the other.

In return, each specific node grants you a passive power corresponding to the seal you unlocked. It’s kind of like a passive skill tree from other games. These range from the wildly exciting “Pets can pick up and salvage white, blue, and yellow gear”, to basic stat increases like 15% dodge.

While it may seem unexciting at first, the bonuses all pile up to become wildly out of hand.

While this notably changes the leveling pattern quite a bit, we won’t be talking about it here. Instead, check out the leveling guides if you’re not 70 yet and somehow found yourself here.

For this guide we have a few couple overarching steps that dictate our plan.
– Get your LoD Archon setup asap. It might be a little rough without a few key items.
– Continue to farm core items to improve your LoD Archon build.
– Got Vyr 6? Reuse the core items you’ve farmed and transition into it.
– Get to a point where you’re speedfarmy enough to branch out to any build.
– Complete Altar of Rites and Seasonal Journey along the way.


Step 1) Initial Build & Getting Legacy of Dreams

Don’t get stressed out, yes, LoD builds might seem a little daunting but let me tell you that it’s a fun and exciting process. Ultimately you need two things right now: The actual LoD gem, and a basic build to get you going.

Generic Starter build (slightly related to our ‘final build’)

Skill Rune
Disintegrate
Chaos Nexus (Entropy)
Hydra Lightning Hydra
Teleport Wormhole
(OPEN) Familiar Arcanot
Archon Pure Power / Teleport
Energy Armor Prismatic Armor
Passives
Blur Audacity
Unwavering Will

You have a couple of options for that open skill, but Arcanot is decent for the most part.

The above build is meant to be in the middle of two things:

  • Easy to edit – that hopefully game-changing legendaries can fit in no matter what.
  • Related to our ‘final build’ – it’s a rough basic version of our “goal”, so it feels more natural as you transition towards it. Have a look down there for the final build preview to see what we’re going for.

Getting Legacy of Dreams ASAP

The first three gems will always be Bane of the Powerful, Legacy of Dreams, and one random one. So thankfully, there’s no RNG there.

Get 3 rift keys → Run 3 rifts → Wear three gemstones on your gear. That’s about as simple as it gets. DO NOT try to “tryhard” the nephs and GR’s. SPEED is the key here. Get your keys on Easy if you must!

Step 2) Easy power-ups. Huge gains for little effort.

You can go all of these things “simultaneously”, basically small tasks here and there that you should keep in mind right now that will greatly increase your power for little to no effort.

Sounds cliche but here’s the “three easy steps!”:
A) Obtain and L25 your three (LoD+2) Legendary Gems most useful to you.
B) Power up Legacy of Dreams with ANY Legendary Items in all slots.
C) Fix your gear with Basic Rerolls and normal gems, remove trash stats.

Of course, if you have a resource hungry build you can also:

  • Make a Reaper’s Wraps: Speaking of no effort to big returns. Make this ASAP. Plans drop from any Torment Malthael. This build might need is early on.
  • Socket Topaz on Helmet similarly helps out with your resources too.

Really early on you’ll want these, but once you get Reaver, you won’t really use much resource. Get these if you’re feeling a little iffy earlygame.

3x LGems to 25Power up LoDEZ Rerolls & Gems

What three Legendary gems? L25 them ASAP.

Your next goal should be getting at least L25 on your three most important gems. Just get repeat the cycle of Nephalem Rift for a Key -> Do a Greater Rift until you get them, and do the absolute minimum level you need to level them up. Get them and level them quickly – do not feel pressured to “maximize” your rift keys by inflating the difficulty.

Legacy of Dreams is mandatory, as mentioned in the basics segment! Level this up as much as you can.

From here you have some choices

Honestly, double defensive gems will serve you best FOR NOW. Molten Wildebeests Gizzard and Moratorium (L25 only) are the best pair for Wiz IMO.

If you need more DPS later on, Gogok for CDR, Powerful for a good cheap gem. Trapped is probably the best scaling DPS gem, while Stricken would only be considered for lategame depending on content.

Can’t ever go wrong with leveling up a Boon of the Hoarder for speedfarming.

Legendary Items in ALL SLOTS

LoD gets stronger with each legendary item you have equipped – so get to it! You should aim to get this done “passively” by natural item drops, but you can also craft items if you’re desperate.

Simply wear whatever junk you find eventually
replacing them with useful pieces as you get them!

Spending Blood Shards is “OK”, but only use Death’s Breath to fill up the slots if you’re absolutely desperate. You’ll get an item for each slot in no time (you can even craft them). Save your resources for finding SPECIFIC items that will greatly boost your power. We talk more about this in the next segment, refinement.

Ancients DOUBLE this bonus, and they’re a welcome boost to consider.

Defense Type & Gems

Wizards / WD’s / Necros are INTELLIGENCE classes (they get free ALLRES from INT). So, in the face of all this free allres, your prime defensive stats are ARMOR > VIT. So try to reroll Armor on your gear if you need defense – it’s your best defensive stat by FAR. REMOVE AS ALLRES (it’s pretty useless as a rolled-in stat).

Slot in your best Rubies or Emeralds, as they give Armor.

Basic Rerolls

Since legendaries are a little expensive to reroll EARLY ON, try to make the most by REMOVING GARBAGE STATS, and getting anything “remotely usable”.

Life per Hit is decent early on. Even if it appears on weird pieces of gear, it’s very welcome in the early game.

Archon% is NON EXISTENT. So don’t go for ANY skill percent rolls.

Remove useless stats

  • Life Regeneration – garbage for any build.
  • Attack Speed – it usually an endgame tune-up stat.
  • Excess Resource Cost Reduction – Is a crutch, and only niche builds need it.
  • Excess Cooldown Reduction – Only useful for an endgame “need”.
  • Unused skill% – literally USELESS.
  • All Resists – Useless for us, take Armor and VIT instead.

Take better stats

  • INT VIT– can’t go wrong with these. Your core stats!
  • ARMOR Life% Great defensive stats.
  • Sockets are essentially MANDATORY.
  • Life per Hit – Great early game sustainability.
  • CRIT Stats (CHC / CHD) – More for endgame, but I’d take this over garbage stats.
  • Skill and Elemental% – that you use. Again, there’s no Archon%.

FOLLOWER GEAR!

Do not forget to fully equip your follower for farming. You can start by crafting Sage or Cain’s NOW and worry about the rest later.

Step 3) Refining, Using Resources -> ‘Full Build’

So you can easily see what items you’ll need, and you can get an idea of what we’re trying to do here.

aggresively try to transition into Vyr 6 while getting your Chantodo weapons.
Chantodo is very VERY powerful.

Vyr 6 Archon SpeedVyr 6 Archon Speed

Full Build Preview: LoD Archon

S28 Fresh 70 Wizard: Early Game LoD Archon speedfarm
Head The Swami Skill Rune
Shoulder Any / Skeleton King Spectral Blades Barrier Blades
Chest Aquila Cuirass Arcane Torrent Static Discharge
Arms St. Archew / Stone Teleport Wormhole
Legs Blackthorne’s Storm Armor Shocking Aspect
Boots Ice Climbers Magic Weapon Defleciton
Belt Fazula’s Improbable Chain Archon Teleport / Pure Power
Bracer Ashnagarr’s Blood Bracer Passives
Amulet Squirt’s Necklace Galvanizing Ward
Ring Halo of Karini Evocation
Ring Zodiac / CoE / Unity Unwavering Will (Audacity)
Weapon Aether Walker / In-Geom Unstable Anomaly (Audacity)
Offhand Any Source
Kanai’s Cube Legendary Gems
Messerschmidt’s Reaver / Furnace Legacy of Dreams
Goldwrap / Any option above Bane of the Powerful (or Defensive Gems)
Zodiac / CoE / Unity Gogok of Swiftness (or Defensive Gems)

This is a giga-flex build with the only item you WANT are Messerschmidt’s Reave >> The Swami > Fazula’s.

Full Build Preview: Vyr6 Archon

S28 Fresh 70 Wizard: Vyr 6 Archon speedfarming template
Head The Swami Skill Rune
Shoulder Vyr Spectral Blades Barrier Blades
Chest Vyr Arcane Torrent Static Discharge
Arms Vyr Teleport Wormhole
Legs Vyr Storm Armor Shocking Aspect
Boots Vyr Magic Weapon Defleciton
Belt Guardian Archon Any (all active)
Bracer Guardian Passives
Amulet Squirt’s Necklace Galvanizing Ward
Ring Halo of Karini Evocation
Ring
Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac
Unwavering Will (Audacity)
Weapon Chantodo’s Will Unstable Anomaly (Audacity)
Offhand Chantodo’s Force
Kanai’s Cube Legendary Gems
Messerschmidt’s Reaver / In-geom Bane of the Trapped
Fazula’s Improbable Chain (Open) Gogok / Powerful
Ring of Royal Grandeur (Open) Gogok / Powerful / Hoarder etc

Old school wizards would know Archon by heart! If you’re a newer one, don’t sweat it. It can be a little jarring at first but Archon is actually one of the “sane” and “simple” wiz speedfarming builds… I honestly don’t want to recommend Tal Rasha here…

As a reminder, the Guardian set is CRAFTED.

Get CORE ITEMS asap. The heart of your build

Items are obviously very important for you build!
Here’s a couple of the best way on how to get your best ones.

The absolute core of your build are these: Messerschmidt’s Reaver – use Death’s Breath. The Swami (Helm) and Fazula’s Improbable Chain (Belt) – use Blood Shards.

To a lesser extent: Zodiac and Karini… Both are rings so they’re hard to MAKE. Pray for them from drops.

Spending Blood Shards and Death’s Breath

Blood ShardsDeaths BreathRings, amulets

Here’s advice on how to spend your blood shards with Kadala, roughly in order of importance:

The Swami – Helm. You can also get a Leoric’s crown here for LoD use. The Swami is a ridiculously good “defensive” item that helps keep you alive when you’re a human.

Fazula’s Improbable Chain / Goldwrap – Belt. Great items in general.

Ashnagarr’s Blood Bracer / Nemesis – Bracer. Nemesis is great for follower. Blood Bracer is a great temporary item.

EVERYTHING ELSE IS FILLER,
and pretty much only used for the LoD version

St. Archews Gage – Glove, Aquila Cuirass – Chest, and pretty much any other “temp items” you can find in the LoD Archon full build preview.

You can get your Vyr 6 pieces from here as well!

Here’s advice on how to get your weapons from Deaths Breath rare item upgrades (Kanai’s Cube Recipe: 25x Deaths Breath convert a rare into random legendary of same type), roughly in order of importance:

2H Axe for Messerschmidt’s Reaver is really really important for your build, early on at least. For the most part it can single handedly allow you to keep spamming Archon, “if you’re not unlucky”. You can use Zodiac for “backup” later on.

1H Wand and Source for Chantodo’s weapon set. You can only use this when your Vyr6 is up and running. It’s a low priority pickup, but it’s something you should inch towards. It is extremely powerful, and actually the main damage source for archon.

You can reroll set items to another slot (example, Helm to Shoulders)
using DB’s FS’s in the cube. Just a reminder, if you want your Vyr 6.

Nothing else is really WORTH spending DB’s for, and would rather spend to try and get jewelry you might not have yet. Aether Walker, In-geom and all that are nice, but not that important.

Rings and Amulets are tough to get from either BS or DB’s (due to the large amount of possible outcomes), but if you’re done getting your core items from these currencies – and you haven’t got your core accessories, it’s a viable way to spend them. Typically you’ll just find these as you grind – then use currency if you’re desperate. Anyway, if I had to rank the importance of your rings and ammys…

Halo of Karini is an ULTRA powerful defensive buff that needs a little work.

Zodiac is another way to cheat more Archons. Use it WITH Messerschmidt’s to ensure your uptime, or use only one of them.

Unity is a decent defensive option, but you need the follower immortality relic, and another Unity for the follower!

As an aside – Ring of Royal Grandeur and Avarice Band are BOUNTY ONLY rings (respectively ACT I and III), which DO NOT APPEAR FROM any other source. They, like any other bounty item, DO NOT DROP from monsters, gambling, upgrades or any other source outside of their respective BOUNTY CACHE.

As a reminder, the Guardian set is CRAFTED, and is used in your transition to wastes build.

Follower Gear odds and ends

More of a reminder than anything, once you start farming you will be running into those little bonuses for your follower farming build. Keep an eye out!


Summary & Outro

Welp, that’s about it. I’m liking these seasonal bonuses that remove the augmentation grind – makes the game a lot more humane. From here, you can easily do the Seasonal Journey if that’s your thing, or transition into literally any other build you like – the it’s exactly what the S28 fresh 70 LoD builds for each class are made for.

GL out there and check out our D3 Guide Directory if you need anything else!

27 COMMENTS

  1. I hit level 70, got the 4 piece vyrs, now just struggling with rifts.. i cant even do torment 1, it takes like 10 minutes. even when i’m in arcon 90% of the time. Any tips?

    What weapon should I go be using for the rifts? Should I just craft yellows for the other pieces?

    • Simply turn down the rift difficulty… you have no reason to “stay” in Vyr’s 4. Focus on clearing the seasonal journey ASAP using the minimum difficulty.

      In archon 90% of the time but struggling? That’s… somethings not adding up here hehe.

  2. Is there a suggestion for paragon points?
    Like for example:
    Basis: Movement > INT
    Off: Crit Ch > Crit DMG > Att Speed
    Def: Life Reg > AllRes > Life
    Adventure: LpH > Area DMG > Resource ?

    • we really need to put that in our guides, right? anyway here it is: MS > INT > Resource optional > VIT as needed; CHC CHD CDR AS; Armor Life% Allres Regen; LpH AD RCR GF (LpH is lower if you have good sustain)

  3. which fire skills do you recommend for a 6p firebird set and etched sigil+death wish pair? hydra as damaging skill or another big damaging fire based skill? my deathwish does +fire damage.

    thank you for this great guide!

  4. Hey guys,

    I’ve been following this guide for about a week now and compared to “competitors” builds, I find this one the most enjoyable. But I’ve seen to hit a rough spot, and I’m stuck hovering between T5-T7. Unfortunately I didn’t come accross this guide until I already progressed a little bit so my rolls aren’t perfect. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

    http://www.d3planner.com/947058520

    • Well that would first depend on your personal goals. If you’re “stuck”, you should first find out where you’re progressing. What do you envision it is your goal this season would be? The free set is meant to be a free set, and you don’t need to STICK with it to the end – the build entailed in the fresh 70 guide will help you along to reach to “point of freedom”. Let me know what exactly is keeping you down? Survivability? Speed in clearing? What’s your goals this season?

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