Lightning Archon Wizard Solo Progression Variation

The Tal Vyr Lightning Archon can easily be modified to push solo GRs with.

Active Skills
Magic Missile Glacial Spike Magic Weapon Deflection 1 Archon Combustion 2 Black Hole Spellsteal 3 Teleport Calamity 4 Energy Armor Force Armor
Passive Skills
Unstable Anomaly Paralysis Power Hungry Evocation

The very rotation of a soloing Lightning Archon changes, mostly due to dropping Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac for Convention of Elements in the gear. This is done to put an even larger emphasis on the burst potential of the Archon activation.

Your general tactic will be to search for large, densely populated areas where you can get the most survivability out of your Teleport Calamity stuns working with Ancient Parthan Defenders.

You will strive to maintain the full 15 stacks of Gogok of Swiftness at all times in order to synchronize the Archon pop (and subsequent 3rd and 4th stacks of Tal Rasha) with the Lightning cycle of Convention of Elements and the Archon stacks from the previous cycle. In order to achieve this, aim to activate Archon right at the end of the Cold Convention of Elements cycle and the first second of the Fire cycle. Since Tal Rasha stacks last for 8 seconds and Convention of Elements cycles last for 4, this will allow the Tals and Lightning rotations to end at roughly the same time, giving Archon the optimal time to cooldown.

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, as well as solid Arcane Power on Crit procs from gear to sustain your Teleport spam.
• Changing Arcane Torrent Static Discharge for Black Hole Spellsteal. This brings a valuable enemy grouping tool and a damage increase to maximize your burst cycle. Do not be alarmed at the loss of a normal form Lightning proc for Tal Rasha, as the Archon beam will inherit the Lightning element from gear and proc the missing stack on its own.

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. While you will get the occasional benefit from them during Archon, they are mostly valuable in your regular form. While you wait for Archon to come back up, you will be spamming Teleport Calamity in large packs of enemies to keep your protection up. This item replaces Nemesis Bracers.

Aether Walker will be included in the setup (either equipped or cubed) in the place of the farming spec's In-geom or the group's Serpent's Sparker. This wand turns Teleport from a cooldown into a spender skill, maximizing your mobility in the Archon downtime and allowing you to spam the Calamity stun for Ancient Parthan Defenders procs.

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.

When attempting the highest tiers of Greater Rift progression, health numbers of Elites and especially Rift Guardians will jump to near-impossible numbers. In order to tackle the sheer health walls, you will need to swap Bane of the Trapped for Bane of the Stricken, a gem dedicated to this very purpose.

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

As previously mentioned, you will either wear or cube Aether Walker to ensure maximum mobility during the Archon downtime.

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.