Firebird Wizard BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points

The build incorporates the complete Firebird's Finery 6-piece bonus, taking six of the seven available pieces and opening up the jewelry for the Endless Walk set and its damage multiplication bonuses. The build benefits greatly from Cooldown Reduction, so it comes as a recommended roll on Firebird's Pinions (along with Intelligence, Vitality and Life %) and Firebird's Talons (along with both Crit stats and Intelligence). Firebird's Down, Firebird's Breast and Firebird's Tarsi should remain pure Toughness slots. Crit chance, alongside high Intelligence and Vitality is recommended on Firebird's Plume. 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.

Not skipping on any of the six available set pieces to obtain the full Firebird's Finery set bonus allows you to split between offense and defense in the jewelry slots. One of the 2.4 reworks, the Endless Walk set — The Compass Rose ring and The Traveler's Pledge amulet — adds a unique mechanic that slowly increases your damage by up to a 100% if you remain stationary, and drains it away and increases your damage reduction while moving. Firebird Archon Wizards share this playstyle, alternating long distance movement to favorable monster density with periods of stationary Arcane Blast and Arcane Strike spam (see this build's skills page for more information).

A socketed Halo of Arlyse will occupy the second ring slot in solo GR progression. Halo of Arlyse will multiply the effectiveness of your Ice Armor mitigation, and provide additional crowd control. As long as the requirements of the ring are met, it will release a constant streak of Frost Novas, unhindered by internal cooldowns. Note that this slot is interchangeable with Convention of Elements depending on your better rolled item, with the worse one going in the Cube jewelry slot.

In solo progression, Halo of Arlyse finds a synergistic companion in the Ancient Parthan Defenders, whose unique property triggers off Freeze effects as well (inexplicably missing from the item tooltip). With the chain triggers of Frost Nova from the ring, diving into massive fights turns from a suicide tactic into a survival tool through the numerous damage reduction procs of the bracer. An important playstyle tip to remember is that crowd control on the same monster diminishes with each successive application — so always seek out fresh enemies to reduce damage with.

Fazula's Improbable Chain belt is tailored after Archon builds, with a BiS roll giving you 50 automatic Archon stacks when entering Archon form. Aiding you in your most vulnerable moments, this belt gets your damage and Toughness off the ground quicker, making it vital for the playstyle.

The mandatory weapon and offhand for the build are the Chantodo's Resolve set, Chantodo's Will and Chantodo's Force. Essential to the playstyle by providing the stacking Wave of Destruction effect, this set will be responsible for a 7000% weapon damage chunk in your DPS. Rolls-wise, aim for Cooldown Reduction and either % Damage Increase or Life per Hit on Chantodo's Will, and high damage range, Crit Chance and main stats (Intelligence and Vitality) on Chantodo's Force. Note that Area Damage is not considered a priority due to the fact that Wave of Destruction (the pulsing of the Chantodo set) does the majority of your damage, and it is considered a proc by the game — thus, not proccing other procs (like Area Damage).

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.

Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is its own multiplier in your total damage calculation. You will benefit from it naturally, as Archon Wizards tend to fight in melee range to maximize the Wave of Destruction — Bane of the Trapped procs itself with the level 25 property, along with the constant Frost Nova triggers.

Bane of the Powerful provides a 20% multiplicative damage increase after killing an elite pack, as well as baseline 15% damage increase against, and damage reduction from, elite enemies. The bonus duration upgrades at a steady pace with gem levels, and is usually a good indication of your power — if it falls off, you are past the limits of your current setup.

Introduced in Season 4, Bane of the Stricken occupies the third and final jewelry socket during Greater Rift progression. 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. The Firebird Archon Wizard is not an exception, and Bane of the Stricken is considered a great addition to the setup.

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

Your weapon Cube slot in solo progression should be taken by The Furnace, the strongest generic two-handed weapon in the game. With its 50% additional elite damage affix it speeds up clear times greatly, as Champion and Rift Guardian fights are the usual GR bottleneck.

Aquila Cuirass will halve incoming damage as long as Arcane Power does not dip below 90% of its reserve, which should be a natural state for a build without spenders in regular form, and free damage dealing skills in Archon.

Your jewelry slot will be best taken by Convention of Elements; the ring rotates through all elements available to Wizards, providing a massive bonus to your main damage skills during the Fire proc (a cycle you will need to learn and time to maximize your damage).

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.

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.