Firebird Flame Blades Wizard Skills and Runes

Active Skills
Spectral Blade Flame Blades Disintegrate Chaos Nexus 1 Explosive Blast Chain Reaction 2 Frost Nova Bone Chill 3 Teleport Safe Passage 4 Black Hole Spellsteal
Passive Skills
Audacity Elemental Exposure Galvanizing Ward Unwavering Will

As you begin your run, a crucially important step is to ensure your survivability as soon as possible — firstly, with Combustion stack upkeep via Disintegrate channeling and the 4-piece bonus of Firebirds, but also by stacking up your Orb of Infinite Depth damage reduction through hitting enemies with Explosive Blast. Disintegrate channeling is also vital for its set-based ignition aspect, as your damage is multiplied by your Combustion stacks against enemies that are Ignited. Once you spread the ignition effect, simply follow it up with Spectral Blade spam to completely obliterate the enemies; timing it with the Fire cycle of Convention of Elements will produce a particularly devastating effect. The remainder of your skillset is dedicated to utility, with Magic Weapon Deflection bolstering your defenses, Black Hole manipulating the battlefield with its monster pulling effect, and Teleport Safe Passage adding strategic mobility to the build.

As you might have surmised from the Firebird set bonus, the inclusion of Disintegrate is mandatory due to the skill-specific trigger of the 2- and 4-piece bonuses. Note that despite the "ignition" wording of the set power, the selection of a Fire rune is not mandatory to achieve this effect; as a consequence, the preferred rune is Chaos Nexus — its splitting beam spreads the ignition very efficiently, and its Arcane nature adds a stack to the Elemental Exposure damage bonus.

While there is considerable freedom in your chosen method of fire spell to amp with Combustion stacks — with options that include Magic Missile Conflagrate and Meteor Meteor Shower, among others — the fastest and most reliable way to deliver damage in this setup is Spectral Blade, strengthened by dedicated items like Fragment of Destiny and The Shame of Delsere, and with an additional Fire damage amplifier from the rune Flame Blades.

Despite its short range, Explosive Blast offers yet another reliable source of a non-channeling Fire spell to deliver Combusted damage with. Of course, you will be taking the Fire-based Chain Reaction rune, whose multiple explosions tie closely with the mechanics of Orb of Infinite Depth for a utility-laden combo that buffs up your own damage, while also greatly reducing damage taken.

One of the staples of the Wizard arsenal, Magic Weapon is taken with the protective rune Deflection for a nice defensive layer that is strengthened by the worn Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer and is easily kept up with the tremendously fast attack speed of Spectral Blade.

Another utility staple in the Wizard skill lineup, Black Hole is taken for its ability to tightly pack enemies together and form good pulls to the benefit of your destructive AoE powers. You will be taking the Spellsteal rune for the minor damage amplification and damage reduction bonuses against affected enemies.

Last but not least, Teleport will round out your skill selection with valuable maneuverability across the battlefield; either to engage, reposition, or simply move away from an unfavorable fight. The preferred rune is the protective Safe Passage, which — coupled with the cooldown-resetting powers of the 4-piece set bonus — allows you to spam the damage reduction effect with permanent uptime.

Matching closely with the close-range fighting style of this build, the Audacity passive nets you a valuable 1.3x damage multiplier against enemies within 15 yards — exactly matching the Spectral Blade reach.

One of the strongest protective passives in the game, Galvanizing Ward brings a duration-less absorption barrier that soaks 60% of your maximum (not current!) life in damage and refreshes every 5 seconds after not taking damage. This passive is strengthened by Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer and is a major protective layer for the upkeep of the Squirt's Necklace damage bonus.

A unique take on damage buffing, Elemental Exposure increases your damage in 5% increments for 5 seconds, based on each source of elemental damage you bring to the build. The Flame Blades Firebird Wiz can take advantage of up to three sources of elemental damage in this base build, with sources of Fire and Arcane damage baked into the skillset, along with our recommendation to try and roll for a Cold damage weapon — this passive uniquely takes weapon damage type into account.

You have a measure of flexibility in your final passive slot. We generally recommend a protective choice to round out your passives, with strong contenders between Unwavering Will (remaining stationary for 1.5 seconds grants an additive damage buff and additive Armor and All Resist buffs) and Blur (no restrictions on movement and stronger damage reduction aspect, but no damage buff). Another option to consider is Evocation, which cuts the downtime of Black Hole and Teleport for an even greater control over the battlefield.