LoD Frozen Orb Wizard Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation

The LoD Frozen Orb Wizard can deal reasonably well with Nephalem Rift Speed Farming, mostly thanks to overwhelming damage potential offered by Frozen Orb that allows you to include Aether Walker in the build, and the freedom from set pieces that allows you to spread various utility legendaries for mobility. 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
Electrocute Surge of Power Arcane Orb Frozen Orb 1 Teleport Wormhole 2 Familiar Arcanot 3 Magic Weapon Deflection 4 Storm Armor Scramble
Passive Skills
Galvanizing Ward Astral Presence Power Hungry Illusionist

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

The T16 key farming build will mimic the GR speed farming rotation, but sped up one step further: with extremely aggressive Teleports into fights and decimating them with Frozen Orbs — ideally still using the optimal 40 yard range for the peak detonation damage, but not nearly as important as in GRs. Of course, you should not forget to stack up Triumvirate with Electrocute Surge of Power, but this will come naturally through gameplay as you restore Arcane Power and draw monster aggro prior to the Frozen Orb barrage. Storm Armor Scramble and Magic Weapon Deflection will keep you safe as you recklessly port around the rift in search of the next big fight, and Familiar Arcanot will keep your Arcane Power reserves flowing; just do not let their 10 minute duration distract you from refreshing them in between runs.

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.

• Your main damage dealer remains Arcane Orb, taken with the highest damage potential of the Frozen Orb rune.
• To manage the gluttonous Arcane Power spending of your damage dealer in this The Shame of Delsere-less variant, as well as to keep your Triumvirate stacked, you will need to adopt an Arcane Power-generating Signature Spell. Our base recommendation is Electrocute Surge of Power, but you have other options — Shock Pulse Power Affinity and Spectral Blade Siphoning Blade.
• With the kill speed of this build in T16 farm, a grouping tool can be too much of a hassle; feel free to exchange Black Hole from the GR variations for the passive Arcane Power restoration of Familiar Arcanot.
• Mobility on the other hand is just as valuable, and Teleport remains a staple inclusion for T16 farm, along with the multiple charges of the Wormhole rune.
• The combo of 10-minute protective buffs — Magic Weapon Deflection and Storm Armor (with Halo of Karini cubed or equipped) are still mandatory in T16 speed farming. Consider altering the Storm Armor rune to Scramble for the additional movement speed proc.
• The vast majority of the passive selection from GR progression retains its value in T16 farming for keys. Power Hungry (distance-based multiplicative damage increase) is still a great addition as you try to burst down enemies with haste. Galvanizing Ward will safeguard your Squirt's Necklace damage buff with a massive shield. Illusionist brings tons of additional mobility. Depending on how you feel about your Arcane Power maintenance, you can either stick with the staple Elemental Exposure for a little extra damage on top, or supplement your AP regeneration with Astral Presence.

The vast majority of gear choices will remain intact from the GR progression setup. This is still a Legacy of Dreams build, so you run legendary items instead of set pieces and obtain the necessary damage amplification and reduction associated with the traditional 6-piece sets. This will cost a legendary gem slot, but will net you all the jewelry slots for powerful jewelry options. Similarly to the GR setup, you should wear a Squirt's Necklace for its massive damage boost; its "damage taken increased" downside is negated by your various shields. For rings, wear a Cold damage Stone of Jordan for the elemental and elite damage boost, and pair it with your better rolled ring between Halo of Karini and Rechel's Ring of Larceny. The former is a well-known defensive staple that massively reduces incoming damage from simple Storm Armor procs. Rechel's Ring of Larceny is a utility inclusion that greatly boosts your movement speed after you fear an enemy, with a solid Fear on Hit chance included as a guaranteed Secondary stat roll on the ring itself.

LoD Frozen Orb armor pieces for speed farming can be roughly divided into the following categories:

• Damage amplification items. You will still be wearing both Frostburn (elemental damage increase and crowd control value), and Cold damage Blackthorne's Jousting Mail (strictly for the elemental damage increase; it should be your only set item, not forming any set bonuses).
• Resource items. The Act III bounty cache-specific Pride's Fall is still massively valuable to the build with its Resource Cost Reduction bonuses in T16 keyfarm. The Shame of Delsere on the other hand can be dropped, as you make up its resource restoration bonuses with passive effects from your skills. In its stead, use your better roll between Goldwrap (practical invulnerability with the combo of Boon of the Hoarder in your sockets and an Avarice Band worn by your follower) and Krelm's Buff Belt (movement speed increase), and Cube the weaker roll.
• Protective items. The damage reduction of Aquila Cuirass and the proc-based cheat death of Pauldrons of the Skeleton King are just as valuable as they are in GR progression. Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer can be dropped in favor of the environment destruction-based speed boosts of Warzechian Armguards.
• Utility items. You will be dropping the excessive protection of the Stone Gauntlets from the GR progression setup, so wearing Ice Climbers to counter their immobilization negative effect will not be necessary. In their stead, wear Illusory Boots; these Act II bounty cache-specific legendary boots will allow you to move unhindered through enemies, enhancing your ability to position for optimal Frozen Orbs.

Similarly to the Greater Rift solo progression setup, your weapon and offhand need to stay on the Arcane Orb-dedicated legendaries Unstable Scepter and Triumvirate.

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.

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).

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

Most of your legendary gem selection from GR progression retains its value in T16 Nephalem Rift speed farming. Legacy of Dreams forms the basis of damage reduction and damage multiplication in the build, while Zei's Stone of Vengeance still brings excellent damage multiplication value to the build. While certainly not weak, you should consider dropping Bane of the Trapped in order not to overkill on damage, and replace it with Boon of the Hoarder instead. Paired with a worn or cubed Goldwrap, and an Avarice Band worn by your follower in solo play (or yourself in groups), this legendary gem increases your movement speed and provides near-infinite Toughness through its interaction with the aforementioned items.

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

In the limited challenges of T16 keyfarm, one legendary weapon damage multiplier should be enough; thus, we advise you to stick to an equipped Unstable Scepter and replace Wizardspike in the Cube with an Aether Walker. This legendary wand turns your Teleport from a cooldown to a spender, and allows for near limitless mobility.

When you solo T16s for keystones, no other source of damage mitigation will be quite as effective as the triumvirate of Boon of the Hoarder, Avarice Band (worn by the follower and emanated), and Goldwrap. Another T16 rule is that mobility is king, and Krelm's Buff Belt is an excellent source of additional movement speed that is synergistic with this long-range, kiting-based build. As mentioned above, wear your stronger roll of the two belts, and extract the other in the armor Cube slot.

Your jewelry Cube slot will still be occupied by your worse rolled item between Halo of Karini and Rechel's Ring of Larceny. Stone of Jordan is a waste to cube, since you lose the elemental and elite damage bonuses of the item — they are innate rolls but are not part of the legendary power, and are thus not extracted in the Cube.

The recommended follower for this build during T16 key farming is the Enchantress, due to her cooldown reduction bonus (cutting down Teleport downtime) and elemental damage increase. Note that this requires that you run Hand of the Prophet and optimize her survivability, as per our guide.

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.

The preferred potions for this build are Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid (allowing you to break down Waller affixes that impede Frozen Orb DPS), Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered (giving you a brief window of CC immunity to counter your lack of CC-breaking or immunity skills), or Bottomless Potion of the Tower (whose Armor-increasing properties complement the naturally high All Resistances stat of Wizards). Pick whichever you feel helps you out the most.

This Season revives the Pandemonium Kill Streak buff from Season 19. Each stack grants a bonus to movement speed and damage, capping at +50% movement speed and +100% damage at 1000 kills. Hitting specific kill thresholds unleashes powerful effects. Read more in our dedicated Season of the Eternal Conflict Mechanics Guide!

While speedfarming sees limited use from this theme, Greater Rift pushing benefits significantly. Effects like Geysers (150), Meteors (400), and Angels (500) can clear elites and Rift Guardians instantly. Players may reset streaks after 150 kills to repeatedly trigger Geysers or push for 500+ kills near boss fights, often using Nemesis Bracers to spawn extra enemies.

Because the most potent effects (Geysers, Meteors, Angels) can obliterate Rift Guardians instantly up to GR150, players can retool builds for efficiency and comfort. Here’s how:

Since you can rely on killstreak procs to clear the Rift Guardian, Bane of the Stricken can be safely omitted in favor of:

• Another generic damage-scaling legendary gem ( Bane of the Trapped for builds with any form of crowd control and/or melee range, Zei's Stone of Vengeance for far ranged builds, Taeguk for channeling builds, Simplicity's Strength for primary attack-focused builds, Enforcer for pet-oriented builds, etc.)
• A survivability-oriented legendary gem ( Esoteric Alteration, Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard), or additional utility ( Gogok of Swiftness for CDR-reliant builds, Pain Enhancer for attack speed-heavy builds, or Wreath of Lightning for extra movement speed).

Adjust your equipment to items that favor durability, health sustain, and ease of movement. Consider adjusting non-essential skills for the build to ones that pull, reposition, or otherwise displace enemies to facilitate large pulls of enemy packs. In more concrete terms, this means:

• For class-specific items, Wizards should consider Halo of Karini if it's absent from the build; this is a powerful damage reduction item that incentivizes you to use Storm Armor and maintain a pull for procs at all times, synergizing well with the killstreak theme. Another strong option is Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer to significantly boost the strength of your shielding abilities. These help shore up Wizard fragility, especially in high-tier content.
• For additional options that balance between defense and offense, the class-specific offhand Orb of Infinite Depth offers a balanced boost of damage and defense for the reasonable requirement of Explosive Blast inclusion. Helpful cross-class jewelry includes Unity (combined with the same ring on the follower plus a follower immortality token), and the Endless Walk set ( The Traveler's Pledge and The Compass Rose).
• Situational items that can bolster your defenses include Stone Gauntlets, the drawbacks of which are negated via CC-immunity effects like Ice Climbers, or the Altar of Rites CC-immunity node.A good number of Wizard builds can also afford the inclusion of an Aquila Cuirass (for low AP-spenders) or a Mantle of Channeling (for channelers).
• Utility items like Nemesis Bracers are essential as more elites mean more killstreak maintenance and faster progression. When soloing, they should be equipped by your follower; in groups, at least one party member should commit to wearing them. Edge cases will see the inclusion of Strongarm Bracers (extra damage vs. displaced enemies), Warzechian Armguards or Krelm's Buff Belt (more speed for easier scouting and pulls), and an Aether Walker if you can spare the weapon slot for ultimate mobility. To facilitate large pulls, consider using a Follower equipped with The Ess of Johan, a proc-based analogue to an enemy-pulling skill (albeit outside your control).
• Skill-wise, make sure to include at least one movement skill tool like Teleport and an enemy-pulling tool like Black Hole. Take a look if you can include passives like Illusionist (for easy mobility resets) or Unstable Anomaly (for a cheat-death).