Lightning Archon Wizard Group Progression Variation

This variation is no longer the preferred AoE DPS spec for groups, but you can still build it and play it in your group with a reasonable degree of success.

Active Skills
Magic Missile Glacial Spike Slow Time Stretch Time 1 Archon Combustion 2 Hydra Lightning Hydra 3 Teleport Calamity 4 Energy Armor Force Armor
Passive Skills
Unstable Anomaly Paralysis Power Hungry Evocation

Similarly to a soloing Lightning Archon, the group Lightning Archon drops Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac for Convention of Elements in order to push his burst limits even farther. You will still be striving to obtain the Cold Tal Rasha proc with a cast of Magic Missile Glacial Spike, the Arcane Tal Rasha proc with Teleport Calamity and the Fire Tal Rasha proc with the activation of Archon Combustion. The difference for the group build will come in attaining the Lightning proc.

Against large packs of enemies, you should let the Lightning proc come naturally from the Archon beam, as it will inherit the highest Elemental damage equipped on gear. The Archon beam overshadows Hydra on AoE application of Manald Heal. Against single targets (singled out Champions or the Rfit Guardian), let the Lightning proc come from placing down double Hydra Lightning Hydras. The Lightning Hydras are far superior at proccing Manald Heal against single targets.

You need to adapt to the situation due to a bug preventing Manald Heal from proccing off your Archon beam while Hydras are proccing it. The bug still stands as of Patch 2.6.

The following skill selection alterations will be necessary:

• Changing Frost Nova Frozen Mist with Magic Missile Glacial Spike as your Cold proc of Tal Rasha. This primary will also bring a valuable Freeze proc that will trigger Ancient Parthan Defenders.
• Changing Magic Weapon Deflection for Slow Time Stretch Time. Since your survival is mostly in the hands of your Supports, you should aim to increase your damage output instead. Since Manald Heal is heavily affected by Attack Speed, Stretch Time becomes the best alternative for the slot.
• Changing Arcane Torrent Static Discharge for Hydra Lightning Hydra. With the 2.5 change to Wizard pets that now enables them to proc Manald Heal, the new reigning champion on single target becomes Hydra Lightning Hydra. Doubled by an equipped Serpent's Sparker and taking full advantage of the Attack Speed multiplication inherent from the Vyr set, the Hydras will melt Greater Rift Guardians like few other specs could.

While this does not change between any of the Lightning Archon variations, it bears repeating — aim for a 63% Cooldown Reduction goal in your sheet (prior to Gogok of Swiftness stacks) for this build to function optimally. Please read the guide's other pages thoroughly to get the complete picture of desired rolls and alterations of this complex build.

You will be exchanging Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac for Convention of Elements. While this will increase the general Archon downtime, it also introduces a whopping 200% damage multiplier if timed correctly. The ring cycles through all the elements available to Wizards on a 4-second basis and factors in Manald Heal's damage during the Lightning cycle, making it extremely valuable.

Ancient Parthan Defenders are a staple progression piece that gives you up to 12% damage reduction per enemy stunned in a 25 yard radius. You will gain reasonable uptime of this powerful DR buff with your own stuns ( Teleport Calamity, Zei's Stone of Vengeance, Paralysis, as well as the stuns of your Support teammates.

Serpent's Sparker will be included in the setup (either equipped or cubed) in the place of the farming spec's In-geom or the solo's Aether Walker. The wand has a simple, but undeniable effect — it doubles the number of Hydras you can have out in the field, resulting in the signature melting effect of Rift Guardians.

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.

In a group Greater Rifting setup, you can afford to time your cycling buffs while worrying a lot less about survival; it also opens up the opportunity to take a full offensive trio of legendary gems — Bane of the Trapped, Bane of the Stricken and Zei's Stone of Vengeance.

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

As previously mentioned, you will either wear or cube Serpent's Sparker to gain the doubling effect on Hydras.

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.