Finally a Fresh 70 Wizard? Looking to progress fast and get the seasonal free set? LOOK NO FURTHER. In our Fresh Level 70 Wizard guide, you will learn exactly that: What to do once you hit 70, obtaining all Haedrig’s gifts, and leading to the end-game!
Season 16’s Wizard free set is Vyr’s Amazing Arcana.
It is also the SEASON OF GRANDEUR – meaning all characters have the effects of
Ring of Royal Grandeur applied!
It doesn’t affect your leveling process or “early process” of being level 70. The free RoRG effect only really takes place once you have 3/5/6+ of a set – with heavy implications on full end-game builds.
This guide is not about that, but I can give you a heads up about this season’s effects.
There are two possible outcomes of a free RoRG in any build.
- You have space for a filler item. Builds that DO NOT USE OR NEED RoRG simply gain a space for ONE MORE LEGENDARY EFFECT. This is the “minimum” effect of this season, but should not be underestimated. Any build can benefit from, for example, Aquila Cuirass or Nemesis Bracer.
- You gain an accessory slot. Builds that NATURALLY NEED RoRG will open up a space for another accessory. Usually resulting in the addition of CoE and/or Zodiac in your build which is ALWAYS ABSURDLY POWERFUL.
Ideally, something absolutely broken happens. I can’t account for every possibility because the community always surprises me – but one thing’s for sure… the effects of season of grandeur can be condensed into one of those two scenarios.
Fresh 70 Wizard: Free set available! | No free set!
Getting the Free Set | Free Set 70 | Gaining Power | Bridging to the End-game
Wizard Leveling Guide | D3 Guide Directory
Fresh 70 Wizard: Getting the Free Set!
AT ANY TIME YOU CAN BEAT TORMENT I+ Malthael:
You can CRAFT AND USE REAPER’S WRAPS for a huge boost!
Click below to reveal the instructions you need for each step:
Fresh 70 Wizard: 6 piece Free Set Build
S16 Vyr’s Amazing Arcana Full Free Set Build | |
Skill | Rune |
Disintegrate (Open) | Chaos Nexus |
Archon | Pure Power / All |
Teleport | Wormhole |
Familiar (Open) | Arcanot |
Magic Weapon | Force Weapon |
Energy Armor | Prismatic Armor |
Passives | |
Evocation | Audacity / Blur |
Unwavering Will | Galvanizing Ward |
There are many build paths a Wizard can take from here. But for now, we will focus on making Vyr as friendly as possible for speedfarming…
A quick review before proceeding…
Keep these important things in mind as you progress!
Gaining Power!
Now we have to gain as much power, as quickly as possible.
Legendary Gems
This is the easiest way to gain power simply because acquiring them has little to no RNG. Getting 3 of your best gems will increase your power dramatically in a short time span.
Click on the tabs to see Vyr’s “Big 3” gems, and “others”.
Get these three to L25 ASAP:
Gogok of Swiftness does A LOT for you. And I MEAN IT. CDR, DODGE and ASPD (which scales well with Archon!) It’s a STACKING MECHANIC – activate Archon only if you’ve hit the max Gogok stacks. It also helps you survive in your chump form via dodge, and CDR for Teleports. Keep at 25 for the early game.
Bane of the Trapped basic DPS gem which is brainlessly triggered from Archon’s Slow Time. Feel free to dump as many points as you can into this.
Molten Wildebeest’s Gizzard While in Archon, you’ll be obliterating everything anyway, right? SO YOU HAVE TO COVER YOUR WEAKNESSES NOW – which is terrible defenses outside Archon. Hell, you can even level this up high until your build matures – and just use it to augment later on! I’m quite serious when I recommend this – it will VASTLY IMPROVE the early farming days.
Bane of the Powerful replaces Wildebeest when you need more punch in the early game. It’s not a bad gem, and having a decently leveled one is never bad. Switch this one in and out as needed.
Any other gems worth it?
Bane of the Stricken: You’re gonna have to use it at some point.
Esoteric Alteration: Is your late game defensive gem of choice, if you need one. This will out scale Gizzard once enemies start packing a punch.
Boon of the Hoarder: You need this for speedfarming – get it up to 50 ASAP!
(See: Speedfarming General, Wizard Speedfarming, Wiz Fastest Speedfarming)
With 3 of your best gems at L25 – try much higher Torment levels (VI+ at least). Make some defensive changes in your build as you proceed!!! Now the real farming begins!
Build Adjustments
Now that you have the base “power level” of your 6 set and gems, let’s take a short time to show you how to manipulate your build depending on what aspect of your current setup is weak. Simple skill, rune, and passive changes listed below.
I’ve said it all and more in the GR20 tab: MAXIMIZE ARCHON. Vyr’s 6 is terrible for “speedfarming” nephs and you’re better off with GR type content. Once you get a little more items, this can be alleviated. For now? You’re stuck.
Again I’ll paste this here… Archon Reminder:
On it – 2 (Slow Time) – Hold Left Click + Spam 1 – 3 to Teleport away.
RC is ‘ranged’.
With the gems, you’ll be able to clear nephs a little less painfully but it’s far from optimal. What do… what do… Stack CDR, if you can, to try and make a Vyr’s speedfarm build.
Advice as a non-Archon human? Well… Survive.
The first level of ownage begins when you roughly have 20 second Archon cooldown WITHOUT ZODIAC as to perfectly align with The Swami‘s buff extension. Otherwise, survival (and even killing) as a human is impossible.
Offense is usually categorized in Damage or, indirectly, Resource Gain.
More Damage?
COOLDOWN REDUCTION is where it’s at. We take Evocation for this purpose. It is THE single most “consistent” DPS stat for Archon based builds. Of course, this statement is nuanced, but in this fresh stage CDR is extremely noticeable and powerful.
Increasing damage with Vyr’s is difficult early on. There are no other “practical” ways aside from passives such as Audacity > Unwavering Will > Glass Cannon. 2/3’rd of which are mentioned in the main build.
No skills are very practical either: Magic Weapon-Force Weapon being the best one.
Amping up your damage isn’t really that important right now. Defense and consistency are your critical weaknesses.
More Resource Gain?
Arcane Power is a near irrelevant stat for later on. We use Familiar-Arcanot to help us out while in human form but that’s far from optimal. Arcane Power on Critical (found in Wizard hats and off-hands) is a much better way to keep shooting.
Defense is seen as self-healing and damage reduction.
Life on Hit is a great stat to have for now. Try to get 1 roll SOMEWHERE.
Ice Armor-Crystallize is the right armor once you get the proper rolls. This is mentioned more than once prior to this. Energy Armor-Prismatic Armor, otherwise.
Unwavering Will helps in both ends – Galvanizing Ward > Blur > Dominance are all fine choices. Sadly, shields scale off YOUR TOUGHNESS as they’re basically VIT. So if your base body is soft, so will the shields. (cue in Bane quote breaking Batman’s back).
Wizard mobility is locked behind ITEMS, more so in the case of Vyr’s. I cannot recommend anything else past Teleport-Wormhole as they are very impractical speed increases. The Illusionist passive is probably your best bet after that.
ARCHON (Teleport) is already quite mobile.
Since CDR reduces both Archon and Teleport cooldowns, it’s great for speed as well.
(See: Speedfarming General | Wizard Speedfarming | Wizard Best Speedfarm)
Items to look for
Okay, now that the easy part of powering up is done, it’s time for the farmy bit. Here I will be listing all the high-impact items you can pick up, and how to get them (aside from drops).
Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac IS A HUGE BOOST TO SPEED AND CONSISTENCY. Sadly, whether from shards or DB’s, specific rings are hard to bait out.
Using Blood Shards:
There are very little Archon specific items and even fillers are few and far between given the hyper specialized set that Vyr is. In any case…
Wizard Hat: The Swami is what you’re after first. This thing is power. You retaining Archon stacks means you are MORE POWERFUL and MUCH TOUGHER even in human form, albeit only for 20 seconds – it’s better than nothing.
Belt: Fazula’s Improbable Chain gives us a ton of stacks as we enter Archon. Great for obvious reasons and further compiles the usefulness of The Swami in our human form. Goldwrap can be found in this pile too, as well as String of Ears – KEY DEFENSIVE FILLERS.
Bracers: Ashnagarr’s Blood Bracer is a KEY DEFENSIVE “filler”. Nemesis is our speedfarmy bracer. Ashnagarr’s Blood Bracer is SICKENINGLY GOOD and will single-handedly carry your defensive needs for many a torment level. Lots of value from the bracer pile.
(Note on shields – Gizzard is unaffected)
Off-hand use shards to find Chantodo’s Force – it’s one half of the set that will push you over the edge into godlike power levels.
From here I would suck it up and spend 50 shards a pop to fish for Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac – which is a GOD TIER efficiency boost for our build.
All other shard use categories fall deep into the “filler of the filler” or “baiting ancients out”. You have stuff like Cindercoat, Aquila… etc… nothing AMAZING.
I may as well remind you of the 2 bounty “must haves”:
Ring of Royal Grandeur: Act I is from ACT I bounties. Lol Season of Grandeur.
Avarice from Act III bounties, for speedfarming.
Using Death’s Breath – Rare to legendary:
This one’s a bit strange…. It’s a toss-up between 1H Swords and Wands.
1h-Swords for In-geom vastly improves your speed-farming capabilities. Personally, this is what I would go for first.
Upgrading WANDS for Chantodo! Yes, getting half a set sucks, but you have to find it sometime. Aether Walker is another amazing find here. Luckily, there’s a lot of other filler wands you can get like Starfire.
DO NOT USE WANDS + SOURCE unless you have amazing ones – a strong 2H mace beats it out 9 times out of 10, base stats wise.
Upgrading a single 2H Mace for “temporary use” is a good idea, and I mentioned it way up there in the seasonal journey tab. Furnace is just icing.
Upgrading Off-hands for Chantodo! USE SHARDS AND DB’s TO FIND IT IF IT’S THE LAST PIECE MISSING – once you complete the Chantodo set, you can now ascend. Fillers exist here, most notably Orb of Infinite Depth.
Upgrading Rings for Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac and Halo of Arlyse (among other great possible rings) should come at the very last parts of progression.
The Classics: Good for any type of newer character, and even the most battle-hardened of builds.
Ring of Royal Grandeur: “Break” your 6-piece to make space for a good filler item! Lol season of Grandeur…
Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac: Massively reduce cooldowns, as channeling spells like Disintegrate trigger it extremely quickly.
Reaper’s Wraps: Not so relevant on Wizards, but since bracers aren’t our strong point, this can be used as a filler. Obtaining it has ZERO RNG (Kill Malthael).
Accessory Sets: Focus–Restraint or Traveler’s Pledge. Completing any of these 2-sets is a vast power jump. +100%~ is substantial for only 2 slots.
Convention of Elements: Good ‘ol CoE. Wear it, Kanai it, as a filler or till the end of time. Learning to maximize CoE in any build you choose is a turning point for higher GR’s.
Unity: Straight 50% damage reduction in the cube. Too bad you need two of ’em.
Goldwrap + Avarice + Boon of The Hoarder: I don’t care how many times I have to remind you about this combo. Be on the lookout. Avarice drops from ACT III bounties
Bridging to the End-game
So you skipped a whole chunk of the powering up phase with the free set. Now what? Like I always say, “Speedfarming first before pushing GR’s”. So, convert what you have NOW to be as speedfarmy as possible, first.
- Wizard Speedfarming: General
- D3 Speedfarming with any Class!
- Wizard Best Speedfarming Build
- Wizard Support Builds
Other Wizard Guides:
- Wizard Leveling
- Wizard Support Build
- Firebird’s Finery | Firebird’s Set Dungeon
- Delsere’s Magnum Opus | Delsere’s Set Dungeon
- Tal Rasha’s Elements | Tal Rasha’s Set Dungeon
- Vyr’s Amazing Arcana | Vyr’s Set Dungeon
Check out our D3 Guide Directory for other resources.
Fresh 70 Wizard:Free set available! | No free set!
Getting the Free Set | Free Set 70 | Gaining Power! | Bridging to the End-game
Excellent site.
S8 has vyr’s set for the free set.
X
When does u uppdate this for 2.4.3??
currently working on it 🙂
The update will be published within a few hours 🙂
Hey guys! Just wondering if yall are on season 10 yet! I’ve got all the leveling stuff done before you guys, but I’m guiding a 4 man and need some help with the other classes post leveling.
Barb is out.. might be able to roll out Wizard by tom… the rest hopefully it’ll be done wed or thurs. Sorry guys its taking a while!
What items we should be on the lookout for to have them extracted with Kunai’s Cube?
Can you please make the firebird finery build ready? Thank you
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?
Sorry I didn’t see this until I made the next post. I actually found a WoH and Orb of Infinite Depth and I have a blast running around spamming explosive blast. Any tips for that?
I keep attempting to email you guys but the emails just get back saying the address is invalid.
Oh, really? Maybe something messed up during our server transfer. Lemme get right back to you with that.
Can you recommend skills for the explosive blast build?
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!
Meteor is good enough to replace Hydra.
How do I get Firebirds on console?
you have to farm to complete the Firebird set or spend shards on Kadala
Just completed season 10 gr20 with the build you suggested and finished it no problem. Fantastic work!
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)
Could you make a spreadsheet like Drahque used to make?
we have this guide directory under D3 General.