Leveled your Wizard to 70 already? It is time to go and get your free set for this season! We will be talking about some Wizard builds that will ensure that you get Haedrig’s gift the soonest and lead to your endgame as a Fresh 70 Wizard.
Firebird’s Finery is Wizard’s Season 21 free set.
Fresh 70 Wizard: Free set available! | No free set!
Getting the Free Set | Free Set 70 | Gaining Power | Bridging to the End-game
Looking for Wizard Leveling guide instead?
Crafting a Reaper’s Wraps at the beginning of your L70 journey is a huge step up in quality of life without relying on RNG. Plans drop from any Torment Malthael!
Also keep in mind other non-rng crafted boosts like Captain Crimson’s set and Aughild’s set. These are super relevant to Firebird as it’s a 7 piece flexible set.
Fresh 70 Wizard: Getting the Free Set!
Click below to reveal the instructions you need for each step:
Firebird is one of the EASIEST FREE SETS to “blaze” past this stage of the game. The 4pc set bonus is absurd. DEFENSE IS A HUGE PROBLEM THOUGH!
Fresh 70 Wizard: 6pc Free Set Build
Quick value note: Firebird 6 piece is ALL ABOUT KILLING ELITES. Change your playstyle accordingly. You can even make elites follow you while they’re burning so you can obliterate random whites along the way. You’ll see soon enough.
S21 Firebird’s Finery Free Set Build | |||
Skill | Rune | ||
Disintegrate | Convergence | ||
Hydra (or any other Fire skill) | Blazing / Mammoth (Fire skill) | ||
Teleport | Wormhole / Safe Passage | ||
Magic Weapon (Wave of Force) | Ignite (Heat Wave) | ||
Familiar | Arcanot (Sparkflint) | ||
Energy Armor (Ice Armor) | Prismatic Armor (Crystallize) | ||
Passives | |||
Galvanizing Ward | Unwavering Will | ||
Blur | Unstable Anomaly (Audacity) |
Firebird’s build is HIGHLY CUSTOMIZABLE. The build works as long you have three fire skills. Hydra, Disintegrate – Convergence and Magic Weapon – Ignite are my choices. Use Wave of Force in place of Magic Weapon if you do not like RNG. You can alternatively add Sparkflint for an extra source of burn (Which I like if you don’t need Arcanot).
Firebird’s is a super open set, but in this guide i’ll be pushing you
towards a speedy Firebird Hydra-esque build that you can migrate into
Typhon or Nightmare speedfarmy variants later.
Before proceeding PLEASE craft a Reaper’s Wraps, recipe from any Torment Malthael. It’s a build that greatly benefits from the early non-RNG boost it gives! Same goes for Aughild’s set and Captain Crimson’s set – keep these crafted options in mind.
You’ll learn more in the coming chunks of this guide. But for now, it’s time to power up. Legendary Gems and Key Items are discussed in the next sections. But you have quite a good summary via the table just up there.
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 Firebird’s “Big 3” gems and “others”.
Get these three to L25 ASAP:
Taeguk is godlike for any build that relies on channeling skills. It helps us out with Armor and damage – you can’t ask for more! If you ever transition into a non-channeling build, use it for augments!
Bane of the Powerful is pure value. For 25 levels you already reach the maximum damage potential of the gem! It plays nicely into our style of elite genocide.
YOU NEED DEFENSE RIGHT NOW!
Molten Wildebeest’s Gizzard is probably the best one for you in the extreme early game, and will comfortably pad your survivability until your build matures a bit. Don’t worry about wasted upgrades as you’ll be using it for augments once you feel like you’ve “graduated” from it.
Your other best DPS gem in the early game is probably Trapped. Enforcer is also legit if you get a few of the Hydra items.
Any other gems worth it?
Enforcer is “always on” but relies on your build to be mainly focused on Hydra (Which it will be), but you may consider upgrading one only when your build does get to that point.
Bane of the Trapped is a basic DPS gem that is a huge upgrade for most if not all builds. It’s not so relevant early on as we have glaring defense issues. Never bad to own one.
Bane of the Stricken is mandatory once you’re at the “limits”. It’s worth investing into, once RG’s life is well into the trillions. I digress – this is a fresh 70 guide after all.
Esoteric Alteration is the “Stricken” of the defensive gems. Sometimes you just have to reliably survive in order to clear – and this is probably the gem for you.
Boon of the Hoarder: A must for speedfarming.
(See: Speedfarming General, Wizard Speedfarming, Wiz Fastest Speedfarming)
Do nephs and GRs until you get your gems and level them up to 25. Personally, I tried to make this process as quick as possible doing Neph>GR>Neph>GR in a chain until I got what I want.
Playing the 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 are listed below –
ACTIVELY, and I mean ACTIVELY – Search for ELITES.
Trashing elites is, literally, making your life 20x easier.
Re-read your 6pc bonus. Igniting an elite (3 burn spells) gives the 20 stack bonus, which means 2400% damage bonus and 60% damage reduction. Fighting small clumps feels terrible when you can literally kill an elite 23x faster than its non elite counterpart.
You can take this further – gather mobs, ignite elite, kill mobs – CONTINUE ALONG YOUR WAY WHILE THE ELITE IS BURNING. Killing any random stragglers AS THE ELITE BURNS AWAY (The DoT is infinite!) – then pick up the balls when they do die!
There’s not much to be said about the mechanical finesse to play this flavor of Firebird. It’s more an adjustment of playstyle/thought and decision making within rifts.
Feel free to experiment for your third burn sources. Hydra, Disintegrate are two, so feel free to experiment on the third. Magic Weapon and Sparkflint are great “brainless” ones, but suffer from some downsides.
More offense or Arcane Power needed?
For resource gain, there’s a ton of ways to get more AP. In our base kit though, you shouldn’t look further than Familiar-Arcanot. It’s “passive” and gives a ton. Any more is overkill. (If you need the skill slot, the best AP passive is Astral Presence).
Arcane Power on Critical Strike will solve all your problems later on. This Wizard only stat shows up on Sources and Wizard Hats.
Storm Armor-Power of the Storm should only be considered for speedfarming weak content. It’s the best Arcane Power management skill, but comes at a heavy cost of being a non-defensive armor choice. Use at your own risk.
There’s a whole host of items to help you here, most notably Cindercoat. However, AP isn’t really a huge issue in our build.
——
Damage? If you need more damage, there are a lot of ways to get that up! Just keep in mind that it won’t interrupt our “Three burn spells”. We currently stack full up on defensives to progress reliably, so we’re not using many offensive options in our build.
Audacity is the best DPS passive, followed by the well-rounded Unwavering Will. This pair is oft used side by side in the later game iterations of many Wizard builds.
Familiar – Sparkflint gives 10% damage, and is a fire spell! It’s pewpew contributes to our burn as well! However, it’s unreliable against large mobs and losing Arcanot in the early game is a significant loss. If you don’t need Arcanot – this becomes juicy.
Glass Cannon is a solid boost that comes at an obvious cost. It’s a great “thoughtless damage boost” for non-threatening speedfarm content.
Conflagration is not bad for multiplayer scenarios with more than 1 DPS player.
Power Hungry is solid, but a little more narrow than Audacity in practice. Obviously, they don’t work with each other, so I’d rather take the latter.
Long story short, between Audacity and Unwavering Will, that’s a 40% damage increase. Other sources aren’t very practical in the early game, but at least you have an idea now.
More defense needed?
Defense is seen as self-healing and damage reduction.
I crammed as much defense as I could in the base build. Many of these are already
part of the basic setup. I’ll discuss them and a few more options.
Wizards have no innate self-heal – they rely on shields. Which is why Life per Hit is valuable in the early game – going shield heavy isn’t a luxury we can go for right now!
Shielding comes in many forms, but Galvanizing Ward is arguably the best – it allows you to have 1.6x your toughness before engaging and very easy to reset mid-fight via Teleport-Wormhole. Learning to abuse Galvanizing Ward will be important later on.
The other popular source for shielding is Magic Weapon-Deflection. Sadly, our rune is solidly locked into Ignite for the foreseeable future.
Unwavering Will is straight up one of our best passives. Offense and defense!
Blur is as basic as it gets.
Unstable Anomaly is a free death mechanic. Between this and Firebird’s 2pc, you have a lot of leeway for messing up.
Ice Armor-Crystallize is one of our best defensive skills. But it will only shine
once you have good armor rolls and gear in general. It’s our late-game armor of choice.
Oh, check out Halo of Arlyse… right.
More mobility needed?
If you need to speed bounties early on or just clear weak nephs faster.
Wizard mobility is MOSTLY locked behind items (Aether Walker, In-geom). The class isn’t known for its built in mobility aside from Teleport-Wormhole.
- Evocation – is where I would start. Reducing the cooldown on Teleport
- Storm Armor-Scramble isn’t TOO bad… great for speeding bounties early on.
- Illusionist – This near unheard of passive is better than it looks on paper.
Any other changes for speed at this point is too greedy, and I can’t recommend it. And honestly, that may nearly be the entire list of in-built Wiz speed skills.
(See: Speedfarming General | Wizard Speedfarming | Wizard Best Speedfarm)
Items to look for
Well, finding those gems was the easy part! Since Firebird’s is an “open set”, there can be any number of possible builds you can transition into. However, for the purposes of making this guide more focused for you – we’re going into Hydra asap.
Again, since we’re talking items here. Reapers Wraps is a great filler that’s crafted. Same goes for the green crafted sets Captain Crimsons and Aughilds.
Using Blood Shards:
Source: Dump all your Shards into getting an Etched Sigil ASAP. While there are more than a few useful sources out there that you can definitely leverage. You can heavily edit your build once you get Etched Sigil, making your third burn and hydras “Free” opens up a lot of possibilities.
Bracers: Ah, there are a TON of good bracers. Ashnagarr’s Blood Bracer is freakin’ OP early on with Galvanizing Ward. Nemesis Bracers is what I’ll look for first. More elites is exactly what we want.
Wizard Hat: When your build is a little more mature, getting The Magistrate will skyrocket your DPS. I advise this THIRD because I feel the flexiblity of etched, and defenses of Blood Bracer come first.
Shoulders: for great offensive and defensive hybrid item Mantle of Channeling. The only downside is many shoulders don’t do jack for you. Good filler.
Chest: Cindercoat is a great filler but is ultimately a crutch. It rolls with Fire% so it’s not bad to equip. It helps with Arcane Power if that’s an issue for you. Aquila Cuirass comes out here too, which CAN WORK given SPECIFIC SETUPS – it’s worth sacrificing a defensive passive or skill to facilitate “Infinite AP” to trigger Aquila Cuirass consistently.
Gloves: have low level fillers. Magefist, which I guess is better than nothing. St. Archew’s Gage is also decent given our playstyle (no, it doesn’t stack with Ashnagarr’s).
Belt: Good ‘ol Goldwrap.
After that, shards are pretty disposable – it’s time for RINGS.
There are many good ring wizards can use – Convention of Elements, Unity, Compass Rose, Occulus Ring (for your follower), and the elusive Halo of Arlyse.
A small note on bounty items to chase for…
Ring of Royal Grandeur (ACT I) to stick in another legendary item.
Avarice (ACT III) to boost our speedfarm capability!
Using Death’s Breath – Rare to legendary:
It’s a toss-up between swords and wands first.
Ultimately I would upgrade Swords first. Deathwish is the absolute JACKPOT, while In-geom is more than welcome. Swords first is the responsible choice.
Wand for Serpent Sparker – double Hydra means double DPS!
Upgrade Sources for Etched Sigil. Okay, I know you’re tired of hearing about it. But yeah. Be absolutely relentless in your quest to bag one. Since you can get this from shards, I list it here last.
Old goodies like the Furnace aren’t worth using up DB’s for, as I doubt you’ll use them for long.
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!
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.
It’s highly likely you’ll transition into a PURE speedfarming build. If so, check out:
Wizard Best Speedfarming Build
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
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.
I’m still waiting for the final build!! Thanks for all this stuff, it really helps!!
I’m adding this today!
Could you make a spreadsheet like Drahque used to make?
we have this guide directory under D3 General.
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)
Just completed season 10 gr20 with the build you suggested and finished it no problem. Fantastic work!
How do I get Firebirds on console?
you have to farm to complete the Firebird set or spend shards on Kadala
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.
Can you recommend skills for the explosive blast build?
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 please make the firebird finery build ready? Thank you
What items we should be on the lookout for to have them extracted with Kunai’s Cube?
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!
Excellent site.
S8 has vyr’s set for the free set.
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