DMO Frozen Orb Wizard BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points

The build incorporates the complete Delsere's Magnum Opus set, taking all six available pieces and opening up the jewelry for the Endless Walk set and its damage multiplication bonuses. Area Damage is important for the Frozen Orb Wizard and is a recommended roll on Fierce Gauntlets (along with both Crit stats and Intelligence) and Dashing Pauldrons of Despair (along with Intelligence, Vitality and Life %). Harness of Truth and Leg Guards of Mystery should remain pure Toughness slots. Shrouded Mask and Striders of Destiny can roll Arcane Orb %, and it is recommended to seek the skill bonus on both. Note that stacking Armor benefits you because of the balancing of sources of mitigation, as All Resistance is already abundant on an Intelligence-based character. Notice also the absence of crowd control immunity in the spec (it is a non-Archon build), making Crowd Control Reduction secondary stats (ideally on helm, but can also roll on jewelry) very beneficial.

Not skipping on any of the six available set pieces to obtain the full Delsere's Magnum Opus set bonus allows you to split between offense and defense in the jewelry slots. Squirt's Necklace brings up to a 100% extra damage as a separate multiplier as long as you do not get hit, but offsets these benefits with an increase in damage taken — a drawback you will strive to mitigate with a stack of shields and Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer. Unity is a damage reduction staple that cuts incoming damage in half, as long as you pair it with another on the follower, plus an immortality relic for them (i.e. Enchanting Favor). Your other ring slot will be taken by the pure damage boost of Convention of Elements, whose rotation of elemental bonuses you will need to learn and time to maximize the benefits of the short-lived Cold cycle.

Introduced in Patch 2.4, The Shame of Delsere belt is an Arcane Power regeneration powerhouse that speeds up your signature spells by 50% and restores up to 12 AP per hit. This bonus will be vital in Greater Rift pushes in order to counteract the gluttonous spending of Arcane Orb.

Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer will be taken to double up the efficiency of your shields — both passive (in the form of Galvanizing Ward) and active (in the form of Spectral Blade Barrier Blades). Note that this slot is interchangeable with the crowd control-oriented Ranslor's Folly, which we have stored in the Cube for the sake of example. If you opt for Black Hole as your means of crowd control over enemies, Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer stays mandatory here.

The mandatory weapon of the progression build is the Unstable Scepter, a legendary wand that not only increases Arcane Orb damage, but also has a unique property that detonates Arcane Orbs twice — effectively doubling the spec's damage output. Note that in order to maximize the damage bonuses of Elemental Exposure, an ideal roll (or re-roll) of this weapon would have Fire damage as its base damage type.

Triumvirate is best-in-slot source for the progression Arcane Orb build, whose unique bonus stacks Frozen Orb damage in three increments, achieved by an easy triple attack from your primary attack.

Due to the 4th Kanai's Cube slot in this Season, replace Unity and Convention of Elements as your worn jewelry with the Bastions of Will set, Focus and Restraint, for their superior damage multiplier. Move Convention of Elements to the 4th Cube slot.

To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is its own multiplier in your total damage calculation. The gem procs itself with its level 25 property when in melee range, but can easily be triggered from afar with your numerous, large radius Slow Times.

Zei's Stone of Vengeance is another independent multiplier, whose range-dependent amplification can be easily maxed out by the long reach of Frozen Orb. The level 25 property will add some minor control and safety to the build, as well as another proc for Bane of the Trapped.

Introduced in Season 4, Bane of the Stricken occupies the third and final jewelry socket. Building up your damage multiplicatively in prolonged fights and with a level 25 bonus specifically targeting Rift Guardians, this gem is designed to assist AoE heavy builds in their struggle against single target, high HP enemies. In lower Greater Rifts, when you are not yet pushing against the very limits of your gear, you can alternate this slot to Bane of the Powerful for the dependable overall damage and toughness increase.

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

The revised powers of Wizardspike make it a mandatory inclusion in a Frozen Orb build, albeit tucked away in the Cube. This unassuming dagger now provides both a proc-based chance to hurl an additional Frozen Orb, as well as a massive damage multiplier for the skill itself.

As previously noted, Ranslor's Folly and Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer are interchangeable in the armor Cube slot. Simply choose your better rolled one to wear, and cube the other. If you opt for a spec that uses Black Hole for monster pulling instead of Energy Twister, you can slot Crown of the Primus here and gain a tremendous stack of utility from all the runes of Slow Time.

The jewelry Cube slot is best taken by the massive damage reduction bonus of Halo of Karini, with a trivial requirement of using Storm Armor in the build.

In Season 33, where you get a 4th slot for the Kanai's Cube, you can use the Focus and Restraint combo in your gear and retain the sizable elemental bonus from Convention of Elements in this bonus space.

The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.

The recommended follower for this build during solo GR progression is the Scoundrel due to his powerful crit buff, allowing you brief windows of extra damage that are well suited to the strengths of this build. Alternatively, if you feel yourself too squishy, you can alter to the Templar for his powerful heals and sustain boons.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.

Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Tower, whose Armor-increasing properties complement the naturally high All Resistances stat of Wizards (due to Intelligence scaling Resistances) for optimal survivability.