Making a GENERAL guide for TAL RASHA sounds like a bad joke.
I’m sorry if this will be unnecessarily complex and long for some –
and unbelievably confusing for others…

If I sound like a broken record sometimes, it’s because I want
anyone who checks this guide at any point of their progression
not to feel lost. Forgive me in advance.

Tal Rasha’s BUILDS are extremely fluid and can change wildly depending on what you get, or how you wish to cover your bases. I CANNOT POSSIBLY tell you the best setup FOR YOU at every STEP. Long time Wizards, theorycrafters, and those familiar with TRE’s mechanics will have an easier time adjusting with every drop.

But I can promise you one thing – I can give you a setup for each step which assumes you HAVE NOT PICKED UP A SINGLE USEFUL LEGENDARY, and can easily be molded to your needs by changing your main channeling spell.

I will be pushing you toward a direction of a “easy and hassle free” EARLY GAME speedfarming setup which is Tal Rasha Frozen Orb.

Ultimately I hate recommending what build path a wizard should take AFTER this midgame power spike. I personally would transition into TRE + Archon speedfarming, but it’s hard to recommend because not every person likes the very specific wizard playstyles.

Tal Rasha needs some help in the later chapters!

So DURING your journey leading up to obtaining your 6 piece, you need to keep an eye out for some things. If you’re carefree and leave it up to luck, there’s a very very high chance that getting your 6 piece will be more challenging that it has to be.

A few small items here and there will GREATLY help you when the time comes, and even when you’re well past your 6 piece and farming it up!

Wizard Fresh 70 – Items needed (Yellows are fine)

2H Mace with INT VIT and Life per Hit (or Socket). This will make your journey a whole bunch easier. Unless you find an amazing legendary, this will be your default weapon.

Self-healing is tough for wizard to come by. Yet, it’s the ultimate early game survival stat! Life per Hit on weapon or socketed Amethyst is where you’re going to look first. Trust me on how hard LpH carries your early game.

ARMOR is REQUIRED for Wizard toughness since they’re INT characters, and INT characters gain free ALL RES from INT. But, they lack ARMOR which makes armor a superior defensive stat rolled on items. REMOVE EXCESS ALLRES ROLLS FOR ARMOR!

Shoulder: SINCE YOU DO NOT GET FREE SHOULDERS (Tal Rasha is a 7 piece set WITHOUT SHOULDERS), you might as well tryhard for a good yellow one. INT VIT ARMOR CDR shouldn’t be too hard to get. This single piece will help you A LOT. 

SOCKETS will be very important for our strategy, getting 3/2 sockets in your Chest/Legs will have a huge impact when it’s crunch time. (INT+VIT+SOCKETS, other stats luxury).

Bracer: will be used for a looooong time even after you get your 6 piece so it’s okay to invest heavily into one. VIT INT, and hopefully Crit%, Elemental%, Armor.

Boots: TAL RASHA DOESN’T HAVE BOOTS, EITHER! Get a temporary boots with EITHER Meteor% or Disintegrate%! You’re looking for INT VIT ARMOR > Any.

Elemental%? Hmm.. Cold% is okay for our mid-game spike. Honestly this is a toss-up.

Skill%? Getting to the free set we use Meteor and/or Disintegrate – then we use Arcane Orb% once we complete our set. So take that how you will, but keep in mind it should be boots. Don’t forsake INT VIT and ARMOR for it though.

REROLL YELLOWS. Some people forget this is a thing! THEY’RE DIRT CHEAP TO REROLL.

Templar. Don’t forget to bring him with you!
And a activate your pet to pick up gold!

TLDR: Remove trash-tier stats like…

• Life Regen – absolute trash.
• Attack Speed – Usually an end-game refinement stat.
• Excessive ALLRES– Useless compared to Armor.
• Excessive CDR – Meh… it’s good but not really for right now.

For good early to midgame stats like:

• INT+VIT on most gear is okay.
• Armor in place of Armor for massive defensive gains.
• Life per Hit as mentioned many times, is godly for WD’s.
• Crit related stats for DPS.

If you’re not allowed to put two skills on your bar because they’re from the same category – FEAR NOT! This isn’t a bug or a permanent in-game restriction.

You simply have to CHECK ON ELECTIVE MODE, via Esc > Options > Gameplay > Elective Mode!

Binding Force Move to Mouse wheel up & down is a value change that every player should make IMO. It prevents misclicks and skill misfires, and forces you to move to where otherwise an enemy might be.

Here’s an overview of what you should accomplish per chapter for this season. Shift+J in game to check.

1st set: Helm + Gloves
2nd set: Belt + Amulet
3rd set: Chest + Pants

Chapters 1 & 2: Complete this in Hard mode. No need to make things difficult for yourself. Only time you need to up difficulty is when you have to finish a (Master) Neph Ch. 2.

Ch 1 + 2 is brainless and the only challenge here is “finding the right build”, well, luckily it’s right there.

Don’t just scrap yellows blindly! Keep in mind the advice from the “Setting up” tab above. Review the items – they can make the difference between whole torment levels.

This strange looking build is built for one purpose in mind – get as many free Meteors with the least amount of buttons pressed. Had more fun than I intended to, honestly…

There are only two “meaningful” entries here. Completing all bounties, and one neph on Expert. If you haven’t done both… Get the bounties done first.

Complete all bounties in all 5 acts: Complete this in HARD. While the other achievements in this tier require Master, this doesn’t. You can make space for the passive  Evocation for a slightly faster clear.

Beat the bosses on Master Difficulty: Shouldn’t pose a threat, I can’t imagine your gear being so bad as you’ll need any special help with this.

• Maghda – Act II, Road to Alcarnus
• Belial – Act II, City of Caldeum
• Beat a Nephalem Rift: Chaos Nexus + Ignite carry hard for brainless DPSing, you should be fine!

Finish up the other requirements in your seasonal journey, and let’s get going!

(This build is a slight variation on the “lazy af 2 pc”. You can use either build, it doesn’t matter. The point of this build is to get you used to Teleport–Calamity).

Tal Rasha 4 Mechanics: So here’s the defensive part of TRE, and it scales extremely well with AllResists (and INT, since it gives AllRes). It’s quite a potent buff but it’s hardly passive. If you get lazy and it drops off – the difference is very noticeable. This version still has 4 elemental meteors, and has 3 active skills for a max of +75% resists.

While we all know getting and beating GR20 is the main event here, there’s still quite a bit we have to do to get there.

Upgrade a Rare to Legendary w/ Kanai’s Cube: Hmm… Okay I’m gonna go out on a limb and try to upgrade a Wand. There’s a FAIRLY good chance you’ll get something game breaking and will trivialize content for you for the near future. Even something as simple as Aether Walker will help you greatly (actually, Walker is amazing for Tal Rasha).

Complete a Torment I Rift: TI should be a piece of cake.

Set Difficulty to Torment II: Defeat Queen Araneae, in Act I, Caverns of Araneae

Set Difficulty to Torment IV: Race towards the bosses! DO NOT KILL TRASH!!!

• Kill Skeleton King – Act I, The Royal Crypts
• Kill Odeg the Keywarden – Act I, Fields of Misery
• Kill Sokahr the Keywarden – Act II, Dahlgur Oasis
• Kill Xah’Rith the Keywarden – Act III, Stonefort
• Kill Nekarat the Keywarden – Act IV, Garden of Hope 2nd Tier
• Keywardens maps have a key icon next to the waypoint. Purple arrows point you to their location after a short while once you’re in their respective map.

GR20: Well this is it…. Tackling higher level nephs will up the GR you’re allowed to do. A Torment III neph should do the trick! You can also do a couple GR’s until you reach 20.

(Seasonal buffs GREATLY help with this. This used to be super difficult but fun)

Read this whole tab. Think back on how you did leading up to this point. Be honest with yourself. You think you’re gonna get trashed, clear 3 random GR’s and equip any 3 random Legendary Gems that you pick up. If you fail after that… I suppose farm a bit.

See our video: Tal Rasha 4 GR20 clear

• I’ve cleared using the “2pc lazy AF” build!
• I’ve also cleared using the “4pc Variant II” build!
• I’ve cleared with an unknown number of JANK BUILDS.

FIX PARAGONS: INT | CRIT | ALL RES | LoH

Listen up – I’ve cleared with at least a dozen builds. I FOUND THE SAFEST VARIANTS TO BE ONES INCLUDING ARCHON-PURE POWER. I chose Teleport-Wormhole to scout out elites as Archon was coming off cooldown.

To have an idea of how powerful you need to be, here’s my stats of my tests:

Wizard GR20 stat findings WITH BUFFS ON:.

• Offense (sheet): 330,000 (min. 300k?)
• Toughness w/ Tal Rasha 4 (sheet): 11,600,000 (min. 9m…)
• Recovery (sheet): 350,000 (varies…)
• INT: 6900 (My crappiest setup cleared at 6500)
• NO ‘special’ legendaries aside from the 4PC Tal Rasha.
• NO Pylons taken.
• NO Legendary Gems.
• NO Cube powers used.
• Remaining Time: 2 MINUTES (305k offense with 1:30 left)

In the video: I recorded this during DDOS on Blizzard so it was LAGGY AF. It caused me to die FIVE TIMES and I still made it.

Offense numbers DO NOT take into consideration most Legendary Powers and Gems. But since I did it RAW – these will serve as a great estimation. Just be safe!

You will not likely fail due to lack of offense. Delsere’s from last season proved that Wiz can do it without a single offensive set buff. The problem is defense…

I initially made a lengthy write-up about the possibilities of builds and that how Tal Rasha builds are so easy to edit and win with, but there’s simply too many factors. If you’re an old-timer Wizard, you’ll know what’s up and can even succeed with a 4 active skill build… here’s an example of the jankiest build I came up with and still cleared:

I DID NOT EVEN USE ARCHON IN THIS BUILD!

IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO DEFENSE.
As long as your offense numbers at around 300k++
You should be okay…

Socketing Rubies or Emeralds in your gear for +Armor might be good if your defense is way too low.

Tal Rasha 4pc: The more active skills you have, the better your defenses will be, but the more strange your build may look. This “strangeness” is very very foreign to those who may not have played Tal Rasha before.

IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING – bending Tal Rasha set to your needs is easy, and you’ll clear GR20 without any problems as long as you have stats close to the above. You never needed my help if this is the case.

IF YOU’RE A BIT WORRIED – then simply use the “Paranoid” variant above, and try to get offense no lower than 350k. I simply cannot take into consideration the many variations of and levels of strength each player may have, so this build is both “Easy” and “Effective”

See: Tal Rasha 4 GR20 clear.

===== TINY TAL RASHA PLAY GUIDE =====

The rotation: Wizards have 4 elements, you need to press a button for each element. Teleport–Calamity (is usually for the free Arcane spell), so “teleport in, press your 2 random jank other element skill, then spam your MAIN SKILL which covers the final element”. You kinda get it, right?

Tal Rasha 4 – Resists: This actually falls off every 8 seconds, unlike the 6 piece. Kind of annoying to suddenly get ripped to shreds.

Tal Rasha 6 – Damage: Ahhh this is where things get a bit weird. It will never work on passive damage, “you must press a button to get the buff“. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DAMAGE AN ENEMY! Simply pressing it is enough.

YOU CAN KEEP THE 4 STACK INFINITELY WITH ONLY 2 SKILLS
after the opening “rotation”.

Meteors: occur when you damage an enemy with any of the 4 elemental types. It doesn’t matter if it’s passive or active. Familiar with Ice rune, when it pewpews, you get an Ice Meteor. Arcane Orbit with cold rune does the same.

=============================

There are nearly infinite variations of a decent Tal Rasha build. And for each item you get, more and more possibilities open up. This is both good and bad.

Tal Rasha Flexibility is good because we can use every item we pick up. We simply try to modify either our character’s base strength (which is amplified further by Tal Rasha), or we get a skill-boosting legendary then we simply use that skill as the final one in our “rotation”.

Tal Rasha Flexibility is ‘bad’ because I simply cannot advise for any of it. I will try my best to give you KNOWLEDGE ON HOW to proceed, versus actual hard GUIDELINES. It just annoys me that I can’t give the “best” advice possible.

Life per Hit on your weapon, or temporary rolls on your accessories are godlike early on. Wiz has a hard time self-healing and this is the easiest way to get it. Socket an amethyst on your weapon too!

ARMOR is important FOR WIZARDS AND ANY INT CHARACTER!
Reroll excess ALLRES and fit as much ARMOR into your gear!

SOCKETING RUBIES AND / OR EMERALDS IN YOUR GEAR for +ARMOR is a MEGA VALUE DEFENSIVE BOOST. I guarantee your damage won’t be a problem right now.

SOCKETS on your accessories (Rings, Amulet), you should have had them 5 minutes ago, son!!! We’re gonna getting our legendary gems ASAP next!

Shoulder is NOT PART of Tal Rasha so if you didn’t listen to me earlier, listen now. INT VIT ARMOR CDR is what you’re after.

Boots have Arcane Orb% in them. You may want something like INT VIT ARMOR Skill%. While this is also found in Helms, I don’t suggest rolling it on there yet.

Element%? For the purposes of midgame speedfarming Cold% is what you want. Elemental percent is found in amulets and bracers.