Tal Frozen Orb Wizard Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Oct 23, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 1 comment
1.

Nephalem Rift Speed Farming

The Tal Frozen Orb Wizard can deal reasonably well with Nephalem Rift Speed Farming, mostly thanks to overwhelming damage potential offered by Frozen Orb Frozen Orb that allows you to include Aether Walker Aether Walker in the build, and the monster pulling capabilities of Ranslor's Folly Ranslor's Folly. 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
Left Mouse Button Shock Pulse Icon Shock Pulse Piercing Orb Piercing Orb Right Mouse Button Arcane Orb Icon Arcane Orb Frozen Orb Frozen Orb 1 Energy Twister Icon Energy Twister Gale Force Gale Force 2 Magic Weapon Icon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection 3 Teleport Icon Teleport Calamity Calamity 4 Storm Armor Icon Storm Armor Power of the Storm Power of the Storm
Passive Skills
2.

Adapting Rotation

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 Teleport Teleports into fights, using Energy Twister Energy Twister right on top of the nearest Elite pack to cluster enemies in one spot and decimating them with Frozen Orb 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 Triumvirate with Shock Pulse Shock Pulse Piercing Orb Piercing Orb, but this will come naturally through gameplay as you draw monster aggro prior to the Ranslor's Folly Ranslor's Folly pull. Storm Armor Storm Armor Power of the Storm Power of the Storm and Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection will keep you safe as you recklessly port around the rift in search of the next big fight; just do not let their 10-minute duration distract you from refreshing them in between runs.

3.

Adapting Skills

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.

  • The Cold proc for Tal Rasha and your main damage dealer remains the namesake of the build: Arcane Orb Arcane Orb, taken with strongest Frozen Orb Frozen Orb rune.
  • The Lightning proc for Tal Rasha is consistent throughout the variants: Shock Pulse Shock Pulse Piercing Orb Piercing Orb for its massive range and AoE aggroing potential. Its Primary Skill nature is also important for Triumvirate Triumvirate stacking.
  • The Fire proc for Tal Rasha should come from Energy Twister Energy Twister Gale Force Gale Force; while the rune is strictly taken for its element and its properties are lost on the build, the skill itself brings massive Crowd Control value through Ranslor's Folly Ranslor's Folly.
  • The Arcane proc for Tal Rasha comes from your mobility skill, Teleport Teleport due to the rune Calamity Calamity. In T16 keyfarm, it will be completely spammable due to the cubed Aether Walker Aether Walker.
  • You will take two shields in the build: Storm Armor Storm Armor (combined with Halo of Karini Halo of Karini) and Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection. Their powers combined will allow you to throw yourself from fight to fight with reckless abandon.
  • Passive-wise, the distance-based damage multiplication of Power Hungry Power Hungry and mobility value of Illusionist Illusionist remain core to the setup. Supplement them with the protective powers of Galvanizing Ward Galvanizing Ward and Dominance Dominance, which safeguard the Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace bonuses.
4.

Adapting Gear

The Tal Rasha's Elements set remains gloriously adaptable in T16 farming, and you should largely keep the same split between pieces as you do in Greater Rift speed farming: 5 pieces of Tal's, plus utility inclusions. It is recommended that you keep wearing the 2 pieces of the craftable Cpt. Crimson set (Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle and Captain Crimson's Waders Captain Crimson's Waders) when you farm on your own, since your follower can wear the craftable sets Sage's Journey (doubled Death's Breath drops) and Cain's Destiny (chance for extra Greater Rift Keystones) and emanate their power as if you were wearing them yourself. When you farm in groups however, drop the Cpt. Crimson's pieces for Sage's Ribbon Sage's Ribbon and Sage's Passage Sage's Passage, as you will have no follower and have to take care of the extra Death's Breath drops yourself. Ideally, you will also carry 2 pieces of Cain's set (i.e., Cain's Habit Cain's Habit and Cain's Insight Cain's Insight) in your inventory and right before the Rift Guardian kill, you will swap to them for the chance of additional GR keystone drops.

Utility slots also vary according to solo or group play, as you have to take care of certain bonuses that are usually relegated to the follower yourself when partying up. The bracer and shoulder slots that are occupied by Aughild pieces in the GR speedfarm variant are better taken by Ranslor's Folly Ranslor's Folly (for supremely strong, pixel-tight pulling effect you can exert over trash mobs), and either the Act I bounty cache legendary Pauldrons of the Skeleton King Pauldrons of the Skeleton King (for the extra cheat death proc in solo play), or Homing Pads Homing Pads (for the safety during town portal when partying up). When partying up, you might want to be able to proc the extra elite spawn at Pylons yourself (usually done by the follower in solo play); this means either cubing Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers, or equipping them over Ranslor's to keep the Goldwrap Goldwrap toughness in the Cube. If you choose the latter, swap Energy Twister Energy Twister for Black Hole Black Hole Blazar Blazar to maintain some form of Crowd Control in the build.

From the base GR progression setup, Halo of Karini Halo of Karini maintains its massive defensive relevance, but the timing-based damage boost of Convention of Elements Convention of Elements does not. Replace it with Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur to maintain your full Tal Rasha and Cpt. Crimson set powers, allowing you to adapt either Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace (in solo) or Avarice Band Avarice Band (in groups) in the jewelry Cube slot.

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

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Intelligence
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Arcane Orb % Damage
  5. Crowd Control Duration Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Intelligence
  2. Area Damage
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Intelligence
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Elite Damage Reduction
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Cold % Damage
  4. Vitality
  5. Reduced Damage Melee Attacks (Secondary stat)
Hands
  1. Intelligence (or Area Damage at high Paragon)
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. Life %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Intelligence
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Intelligence
  2. Arcane Orb % Damage
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Cold % Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Area Damage
  5. Crowd Control Duration Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Area Damage
  5. Crowd Control Duration Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  3. Intelligence (or % Damage at high Paragons)
  4. Area Damage
  5. Increased Attack Speed
Off-hand
  1. High Damage Range
  2. Intelligence
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Arcane Orb % Damage
  5. Area Damage
  6. Arcane Power on Crit

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.

4.1.

Altar of Rites

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).

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.

5.

Adapting Gems

Both Zei's Stone of Vengeance Zei's Stone of Vengeance and Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped still bring excellent damage multiplication value to the build in T16 keyfarm. Within the limited challenges of T16 rifts, Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken should be replaced by Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder. This gem increases your movement speed and provides near-infinite Toughness through its interaction with Avarice Band Avarice Band (either slotted in the Cube during group play, or worn by your follower in solo play), and the cubed Goldwrap Goldwrap.

Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

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

6.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

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 Unstable Scepter and replace Wizardspike Wizardspike in the Cube with an Aether Walker Aether Walker. This legendary wand turns your Teleport 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 Boon of the Hoarder, Avarice Band Avarice Band (worn by the follower and emanated), and Goldwrap Goldwrap in the armor slot of the Cube. In groups, you might want to take Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers in this slot to allow you to proc extra elites, but wanting to Goldwrap Goldwrap is understandable — if so, equip the Nemesis on yourself and swap Energy Twister Energy Twister for Black Hole Black Hole Blazar Blazar.

Due to the neck slot occupation of the Tal Rasha amulet, you are forced to slot Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace in the Cube and equip the Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur. Despite the tradeoff, this necklace more than makes up for it with a massive doubling of your damage; you will offset its "damage taken increased" drawback with a plethora of shields in your skill and passive selection.

In Season 33, where you get a 4th slot for the Kanai's Cube, you can re-introduce Wizardspike Wizardspike to the setup.

7.

Follower

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

8.

Legendary Potion

The preferred potions for this build are Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid (allowing you to break down Waller affixes that impede Frozen Orb Frozen Orb DPS), Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered 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 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.

9.

Changelog

  • 23 Oct. 2024: Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
  • 10 Jul. 2024: Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
  • 10 Apr. 2024: Guide reviewed for Season 31.
  • 10 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 06 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 30 Oct. 2021: Guide added.
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