D3 Wizard Fresh Level 70 Guide S22 | 2.6.10

Well, let’s not beat around the bush. The fourth Kanai’s Cube slot is the ultimate buff here. Sure, the Pylons spawning a certain kind of “shadow clone” is cool and exciting in its own way… But when it comes to pure POWER, a fourth Kanai’s slot is probably the strongest ever buff we’ve had!

It doesn’t really help early on, but as you gather more and more legendary effects it will help you out quite a bit. In the end-game, this is, at the very least, a 20/30% power spike to your character.

REROLLING YELLOW ITEMS IS SUPER LEGIT, CHEAP, AND UNDERRATED.
Nicely rerolled yellows will carry you for a LONG TIME.

WEAPON: Craft or find a 2H Mace. The stats you want are INT VIT LpH or Socket (Purple gem for LpH, Red for DMG+, Green for CHD+). Avoid any other stat for now.

Wizard is an INT Class – meaning you get free ALL RESISTS  from all the INT on your gear. This results in a huge lack of ARMOR. So, in your reroll strategy REMOVE ALLRES ROLLS as they’re pretty much USELESS – and replace them with ARMOR. ARMOR is your best defensive stat by a LARGE MARGIN. Socketing Emeralds or Rubies on your gear also gives you Armor.

SELF HEALING: While life per hit is great for most builds early on… It isn’t that great for Wizard as your build matures. Get it on early temporary gear (your yellow weapon is a good start), but somehow it isn’t as effective with the Typhon set…

Crafting an early Reaper’s Wraps can help you a little bit. While it’s not exactly important for Wizards early game, every bit can help. Arcane Power isn’t usually an issue, so maybe you can try proceeding without it first, then judging for yourself if you need it. Plans drop from any Torment Malthael.

Elemental% can be found on Bracers and Amulets. Cold% is where we will end up, but the journey to get the 6pc set… Cold isn’t really useful. Temporary elemental gear to help you clear the later entries may not be needed, but I’ll discuss them down the line when it’s relevant.

Skill% (Hydra%) can be found on Chest and Shoulders. This is the skill we want at the end – and thankfully, we use it early on as well. Good to have on both pieces. Keep in mind there’s no way around losing one defensive stat when rolling this on the chest.

Chest / Legs: INT VIT Armor Sockets (3/2). Life% isn’t bad, either. Since you typically get these pieces last, you’ll want decent fillers until you get your 6pc set. Hydra% rolls on chest, also.

Belt: Is a huge source of defense. INT > VIT > Armor > Life%. You’ll be surprised how a single item can give you a whole load of toughness.

Rings and Amulet: You NEED sockets on these to prep for legendary gems. Get any stat on these that you feel you’re missing. Feeling soft? Get defenses. Need DPS? Crit and mainstat. Feel free to roll “random helpful stats” on these for now, instead of the usual endgame CHC/CHD/MAINSTAT.

GEMS: For body pieces you’ll want Emeralds or Rubies for ARMOR. Helm may vary (Amethyst for Life%, Topaz for resource cost reduction, Diamond for Cooldown Reduction) depending on your needs. On the topic of helmet gems – Topaz is a good idea if you have any sort of resource issues in the early game.

OTHER SLOTS will be taken over by your free set pieces. No matter how bad they are stat wise, the 4pc bonus will heavily outperform any temporary yellow you can make.

Getting the “correct” stats beats getting the “perfect” stats for now. REMOVE USELESS STATS and get any USEFUL STAT for massive gains in power.

Remove useless stats:

• Life Regeneration – garbage.
• Attack Speed – it usually an endgame tune-up stat.
• Excessive Resource Cost Reduction – Is a crutch, and only niche builds need it.
• Excessive Cooldown Reduction – Only useful for an endgame “need”.
• ALLRES – Useless for us, take Armor instead.
• Unused skill% – literally has NO EFFECT.

Take better stats:

• INT VIT – can’t go wrong with these. Your core stats!
• Armor Life% – Great defensive stats.
• Life per Hit – Great early game sustainability.
• CRIT Stats (CHC / CHD) – More for endgame, but I’d take this over garbage stats.

For clarity this box contains info and builds if you currently have 0 pcs of the Typhon free set, going for 2 (you don’t have any Haedrig’s gift bag, going for the first).

A basic little build that spams Disintegrate while having Hydra help us out with DPS. Arcane Power is generated purely passively. Built to make your early game a little faster and without much thought. Remember you can remove / add Arcane Power crutches if your Topaz on helm or Reaper’s Wraps is enough (allowing you to inject more DPS or defense)

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accommodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

The entries in these early chapters are dead easy. The build above gives you a good balance of offense, defense and speed built in to help you breeze through this as mindlessly as possible.

Hard Mode on for Chapters 1 & 2. Clear through all the entries on Hard. Just up the difficulty to complete one Neph on Expert.

Don’t forget to level up all the NPCs in town. Completing your weekly Challenge Rift will help you get resources to do this easily, if you haven’t already.

When you’re done here, get your first free set from your mail, and proceed onward.

For clarity this box contains builds and info if you currently have 2 pcs of the Typhon free set, going for 4 (you have the first Haedrigs gift bag, going for the second).

Our build isn’t really affected since we use Hydra anyway (simply using Frost Hydra instead of Mammoth). More heads means more Hydra shots! While Frost is my preference due to it being our late-game choice, Lightning or Arcane works out too.

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accommodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

Difficulty: Although there are entries here that need to be finished on Master, you can still complete the bounty cache, if you haven’t already, on Hard. For the bounty, try to do the whole five acts as you’ll need to do this down the line, anyway.

These entries are still on the easy side, so we can be a little lax with our build making as little sacrifices as possible to retain good DPS, Speed, and some thought to defense. When you’re done with this chapter, collect your 2nd set of free set and let’s finish the next chapter for the remaining free gear!

Honestly, this 4pc needs A LOT OF HELP from items and stats. It feels really bad this early on. It’s balanced around having a Serpent Sparker which obviously most people won’t have right now. While it feels fair and cool in the full build, it’s utterly terrible with only one Hydra and crappy shields (which describes, sadly, you and me right now). Quite a few changes here.

The time for ARCHON is at hand!

This build will be the baseline for all entries in this tier (Torment II, IV, and GR20) While this build may seem overkill for the Torment II entries, you may as well prep up for the harder parts of this tier.

Upgrade a Rare to Legendary w/ Kanai’s Cube: Wand for Serpent Sparker and/or Fragment of Destiny. Both are Hydra related.

Complete a Torment I Rift: This will be the minimum level you should be farming at should you need to do it. Increase if you can easily obliterate a rift. There’s also a “Kill a Torment II Boss” entry here which should be easy.

Complete any other odds and ends that you can, before proceeding to Torment IV.

Abuse Archon. Archon will kill any elite pack during its duration, and can kill any Rift Guardian tier boss in 2 max.

While you might die here and there, you can eventually knock out these entries using Archon. Putting it simply, your build (raw, w/o other legendary powers) is simply too weak to do much here. Rely on Archon and get used to how to control it.

Cast Archon / then hold Left or Right click (depends on distance) > Spam 1 key
This is the “Archon Rotation”.

COOLDOWN REDUCTION IS YOUR STRONGEST STAT during this Torment IV era.
Use Diamond on helm and Evocation passive.

In Torment IV things get real. For many of the free sets, this place is the breakpoint whether your build needs help or not. And for S22 and Typhon may struggle a bit.

• Kill Odeg – Keywarden in ACT I, Fields of Misery.
• Kill Sokahr – Keywarden in ACT II, Dahlgur Oasis.
• Kill Xah’Rith – Keywarden in ACT III, Stonefort.
• Kill Nekarat – Keywarden in ACT IV, Gardens of Hope 2nd Tier.
• Kill Specific Boss – Check your journal to see who it is this season.
• 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.

For the boss and all Keywardens – STRAIGHT UP RUSH TO THEM!
Ignore ALL TRASH and just beeline! Get it done ASAP!

You’ll really notice the if you’ve neglected your temporary yellow gear and rerolls. Hopefully , you have powerful legendary to carry you (and even if you do), you will notice if you’ve neglected your gear. Refer to the very top setting up tab if you need help.

Either way, this is a good time to take a closer look at your items and get as many powerups and rerolls stated in the setting up tab above.

If you’re not used to the Archon style yet, read on.

Again, this is purely the Archon show. The rest of your gear may as well be decorative. A wizard can clear GR20 with no set bonuses and just Archon. Seriously. BUT IT’S NOT EASY IF YOU’RE NOT USED TO THE PLAYSTYLE.

You should have an idea of how strong you are given the drops (or lack thereof) you’ve gotten. Be practical and don’t be afraid to shore up your build a little. If you feel a little weak – Do 4 quick Nephs, then do 4 GR10+.

For most people, or newer Wizard players, this whole Archon Elite killing playstyle might be weird. Don’t be afraid to practice on rifts and getting some Legendary Gems.

COOLDOWN REDUCTION IS YOUR STRONGEST STAT during this Torment IV era.
Use Diamond on helm, and Evocation passive.

The “ultimate” challenge gating you to getting your full six piece free set! The difficulty varies wildly on your class and seasonal set. As someone who has cleared with EVERY SINGLE SET AND CLASS WITHOUT ANY OTHER LEGENDARY – let me tell you, they’re not all created equal.

As implied, these are the items that are core, or important, to your build. I talk more about how to obtain these later on – remember to keep these in mind always.

At the very bottom of this guide, you can preview what a good base template build is for items / skills / passives to get an idea what you’re going for.

As implied, these are the items that are core, or important, to your build. I talk more about how to obtain these later on – remember to keep these in mind always.

At the very bottom of this guide, you can preview what a good base template build is for items / skills / passives to get an idea what you’re going for.