Firebird Flame Blades Wizard Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Oct 23, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 33 comments
1.

Nephalem Rift Speed Farming

The Firebird Wizard can deal reasonably well with Nephalem Rift Speed Farming, with versatile and unconditional damage at its disposal and great mobility offered by the Teleport Teleport-resetting powers of the Firebird set. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Diamond Skin Icon Diamond Skin Prism Prism Right Mouse Button Disintegrate Icon Disintegrate Chaos Nexus Chaos Nexus 1 Explosive Blast Icon Explosive Blast Chain Reaction Chain Reaction 2 Magic Weapon Icon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection 3 Teleport Icon Teleport Wormhole Wormhole 4 Familiar Icon Familiar Sparkflint Sparkflint
Passive Skills
2.

Adapting Rotation

When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.

When farming keys in Torment difficulties, the Firebird Wizard can alter from the slower, more measured pace of Spectral Blade Spectral Blade Flame Blades Flame Blades damage dealing and focus completely on Explosive Blast Explosive Blast Chain Reaction Chain Reaction to deliver the damage, resulting in a very satisfying and destructive playstyle once you overpower the content. Essentially, you will be spamming Explosive Blast Explosive Blast on cooldown that will be practically nullified with your first Elite kill due to the resetting powers of In-geom In-geom.

The Explosive Blast Explosive Blast resource costs will be kept up via Diamond Skin Diamond Skin Prism Prism, which you should also reapply on cooldown. Disintegrate Disintegrate will still be necessary for upkeep of Combustion stacks and Igniting the enemy, but since Explosive Blast Explosive Blast has no casting animation, you can channel Disintegrate Disintegrate freely and keep your set bonuses active.

The remainder of your skillset is comprised of buffs (Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection and Familiar Familiar Sparkflint Sparkflint) that you simply reapply as they fall off, and a mobility skill in the face of the ubiquitous Teleport Teleport.

3.

Adapting Skills

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to cross over great distances faster and more efficiently take precedence.

  • The use of Disintegrate Disintegrate is set in stone, since its powers trigger the set mechanics for both Ignition of enemies and the Combustion stacks. Use the rune Chaos Nexus Chaos Nexus for its superior beam spread.
  • As mentioned above, damage dealing duties fall onto Explosive Blast Explosive Blast, taken with the multiple explosions (to tie into Orb of Infinite Depth Orb of Infinite Depth) and Fire-based nature (to tie into the Firebird bonuses) of the Chain Reaction Chain Reaction rune. The cooldown of this skill will be practically nullified as you chain Elite kills and take advantage of the In-geom In-geom bonus, but you will also be using Evocation Evocation in your passives to keep said cooldown naturally low.
  • To keep up the considerable costs of both Explosive Blast Explosive Blast and Disintegrate Disintegrate, you will be using Diamond Skin Diamond Skin Prism Prism for its massive, flat resource cost reduction bonuses.
  • The shields from Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection will pair with the ones from Galvanizing Ward Galvanizing Ward and Dominance Dominance to keep your Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace damage bonus safe from harm. In solo play, they will be amplified via a cubed Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer.
  • Teleport Teleport will be vital for maneuverability during key farming; during early character progression you can stick to the defensive Safe Passage Safe Passage, but eventually you can adapt to the multiple charges of Wormhole Wormhole — useful in sparse and prolonged Rift layouts, an inevitability in longer farm sessions.
4.

Adapting Gear

You will still be aiming for the full 6-piece bonuses of the Firebird set, but you will shift pieces around to accommodate the inclusion of two more sets in the mix: the craftable Aughild's Authority and Captain Crimson's Trimmings sets. Naturally, you will have to complete this triumvirate of bonuses with a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube. Note that the item split in the table below is just a sample, as both craftable sets offer pieces in several other slots which can be shifted around according to your best rolled pieces of gear.

Stat-wise, this variant is more demanding on Resource Cost- and Cooldown Reduction stats, and you will be striving to reach around 40% RCR and 60% CDR to maintain both consistent Disintegrate Disintegrate channeling and Explosive Blast Explosive Blast spam.

The Aughild 3-piece set bonus will bring considerable damage increase and damage reduction, especially against Elite enemies. The Cpt. Crimson 3-piece set bonus scales damage dealt and reduces damage taken via CDR and RCR respectively, and brings hefty 20% bonuses to both, making it an excellent inclusion.

When it comes to jewelry, our base recommendation is to split between damage amplification and utility. For your amulet, take Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace — it offers massive damage multiplication bonuses at the cost of an increase of damage taken; a drawback that you will strive to nullify via the plethora of shields included in the build. For one of your rings, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac will pick up the slack whenever In-geom In-geom chaining does not line up, and will offer a speedy reset of your vital cooldowns. Your final ring should alternate between Avarice Band Avarice Band in group play (it offers indispensable Pickup Radius bonuses as you gather gold), or — since this ring can be equipped on your follower and have its powers affect you via the Emanate mechanics — simply use a Fire damage Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan in solo farming.

It bears mentioning once again, but the cooldown reduction staple of speedfarming In-geom In-geom should be your main hand weapon during standard rift farming for keystones.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Intelligence
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Vitality
  5. Crowd Control Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Life %
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Intelligence
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Life %
  5. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Fire Damage
  4. Life per Hit
  5. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Hands
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Life %
  4. Armor
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Intelligence
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. All Resistance
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Fire Damage
  5. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Resource Cost Reduction
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Flat Damage Increase
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. High Weapon Damage (ideally Lightning)
  2. Intelligence (replaced by % Damage at high Paragon)
  3. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Elite Damage Increase
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Off-hand
  1. High Damage Range
  2. Intelligence
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Arcane Power on Crit
  5. Fire Damage
  6. Cooldown Reduction

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.

4.1.

Altar of Rites

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).

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.

5.

Adapting Gems

Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped still bring excellent damage multiplication value to the build in speed farming. To minimize downtime as you inflict devastation on your enemies, take Invigorating Gemstone Invigorating Gemstone — its level 25 bonus negates the single biggest nuisance to this build, crowd control impairing effects.

Round out your standard Nephalem Rift farming gems with Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder, which increases your movement speed and provides screen-wide Pickup Radius via its interaction with the follower-worn Avarice Band Avarice Band.

Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

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

6.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

Orb of Infinite Depth Orb of Infinite Depth still brings tremendous value to the build, especially when it comes to damage reduction. It is simply moved to the Cube due to the 3 set puzzle you need to fit in your equipment slots.

In solo play, you can slot Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer in the armor Cube slot to enjoy its shield enhancement powers — a great boon to your Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace upkeep. Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers can be worn by your follower and you will still receive their benefits via the Emanate mechanics, which makes certain items worn by the follower affect you as well. In group play, you will have to use the Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers in your armor Cube slot.

As previously mentioned, you will need to use Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube in order to maintain the full bonuses of the amalgam of sets that you have equipped.

In Season 33, where you get a 4th slot for the Kanai's Cube, you can introduce additional attack and movement speed to the build by slotting Echoing Fury Echoing Fury there.

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.

7.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during standard T16 rifts farming is the Enchantress due to her vast array of bonuses that complement this build; most notably, Prophetic Harmony Prophetic Harmony for the Cooldown Reduction and Amplification Amplification for the elemental damage increase, both of which you can attain by using a Hand of the Prophet Hand of the Prophet.

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.

8.

Legendary Potion

Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered, which renders you immune to Crowd Control effects for a brief time after consuming it — valuable bonus to a build that lacks means to break away from CC outside of straight up evasion via teleporting.

9.

Changelog

  • 23 Oct. 2024: Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
  • 10 Jul. 2024: Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
  • 10 Apr. 2024: Guide reviewed for Season 31.
  • 10 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 06 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 22 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
  • 23 Mar. 2021: Guide added.
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