Vyr Archon Wizard Greater Rift Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Oct 23, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 61 comments
1.

Greater Rift Speed Farming

The Vyr Archon Wizard can deal reasonably well with Greater Rift Speed Farming, mostly thanks to the great mobility offered by the Teleport rune of Archon gained via the 2-piece bonus. This is also the build variation you should use for Echoing Nightmare content, with no additional changes required. 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.

During lower tier Greater Rift farming, the balance between defense, damage and utility can be shifted to favor the latter two aspects of character building.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Arcane Torrent Icon Arcane Torrent Static Discharge Static Discharge Right Mouse Button Magic Weapon Icon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection 1 Archon Icon Archon Slow Time Slow Time 2 Explosive Blast Icon Explosive Blast Flash Flash 3 Black Hole Icon Black Hole Absolute Zero Absolute Zero 4 Storm Armor Icon Storm Armor Shocking Aspect Shocking Aspect
Passive Skills
2.

Adapting Rotation

When you are Speed Farming Greater Rifts, your playstyle should at least partially reflect the circumstances by focusing on massive pulls, generic bonuses against enemies and chaining pylon effects.

Before starting the farming run, apply the two protective buffs — Storm Armor Storm Armor Shocking Aspect Shocking Aspect and Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection. For your first Archon rotation, get some Chantodo stacks (10 should be more than enough, no need to fully stack) via Explosive Blast Explosive Blast and Arcane Torrent Arcane Torrent, then enter Archon Archon form. Focus on trash enemies on your first rotation; while elite kills are nice, you depend on the Messerschmidt's Reaver Messerschmidt's Reaver for cooldown resets, and its power hinges on the number, not power, of monsters killed. For subsequent Archon Archon re-activations, you should get to the 20 stack cap of Chantodo's set. This will be assisted by both Explosive Blast Explosive Blast and Arcane Torrent Arcane Torrent, as their effects persist between forms and still get you stacks for the next activation.

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 burst down enemies quicker takes precedence.

  • Archon Archon naturally stays as the focal point of the build, taken with the Cold rune Slow Time Slow Time.
  • Explosive Blast Explosive Blast Flash Flash will take the place of the GR progression-oriented Slow Time Slow Time to build you up Chantodo stacks faster. This goal will be shared by Arcane Torrent Arcane Torrent Static Discharge Static Discharge and Black Hole Black Hole as well, with the latter adding a decent damage buff via the Cold rune Absolute Zero Absolute Zero.
  • Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection and Storm Armor Storm Armor Shocking Aspect Shocking Aspect will remain at the core of your defensive setup, each bringing its own flavor of damage mitigation to the build — the former in combination with Galvanizing Ward Galvanizing Ward, and the latter — through its interaction with Halo of Karini Halo of Karini. Once you grow confident with the build, you can viably alternate your Storm Armor Storm Armor rune to the movespeed-oriented Scramble Scramble.
  • The core of your passives, the multiplicative close range damage buff of Audacity Audacity and the Cooldown Reduction of Evocation Evocation, remain part of your passive lineup. Galvanizing Ward Galvanizing Ward adds a hefty shield to protect you and your Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace from unlucky bursts of damage, while Unstable Anomaly Unstable Anomaly will grant you a cheat death whenever something punches through said defenses.
4.

Adapting Gear

You will still be taking advantage of the full 6-piece set bonuses of Vyr, but you will only take 5 set pieces and get the complete bonus through a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur. This allows you to wear The Swami The Swami on your character, and take advantage of the extra elemental damage and powerful crowd control of Frostburn Frostburn in the Cube armor slot. To complement the Archon build, you will maintain the Chantodo's Resolve set — Chantodo's Will Chantodo's Will and Chantodo's Force Chantodo's Force as your main- and off-hand.

Item stat priorities remain largely the same as the GR progression build — with a focus on Toughness stats across gear, cooldown reduction wherever possible, and eschewing all Area Damage bonuses, as they do not work on Archon skills.

The jewelry remains unchanged from the GR progression setup. With the opportunity to equip The Flavor of Time The Flavor of Time and Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers on your follower and use their powers via the Emanate mechanic when soloing, you can still maintain the valuable bonuses of Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace and Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer from the progression build. If you plan on grouping up however, use The Flavor of Time The Flavor of Time to extend the duration of Pylon pick-ups, and equip Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers to be able to spawn additional elites on your own.

4.1.

Season 33 Modification

Due to the 4th Kanai's Cube slot in this Season, replace The Swami The Swami as your worn headpiece to open up space for an additional set power (i.e. the craftable Guardian's Jeopardy set, via Guardian's Aversion Guardian's Aversion and Guardian's Gaze Guardian's Gaze). Move The Swami The Swami to the 4th Cube slot. These extra set bonuses will more than make up for the loss of our traditional wrist slot recommendation, Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer.

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

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.

4.2.

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

Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped still bring excellent damage multiplication value to the build in speed farming. Gogok of Swiftness Gogok of Swiftness is helpful in ramping up Chantodo bonuses and keeping your CDR sky-high in order to return to Archon Archon form as soon as possible; if you are well-optimized on CDR on gear however, you should use Zei's Stone of Vengeance Zei's Stone of Vengeance to maximize damage.

Within the limited challenges of Speed Greater Rifts, Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken should be replaced by Bane of the Powerful Bane of the Powerful for its well-rounded damage increase and damage mitigation bonuses; its limited duration should be of no consequence when you are demolishing the difficulty.

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

Messerschmidt's Reaver Messerschmidt's Reaver is a cooldown reduction powerhouse that allows you to reduce the perilous Archon Archon downtime through trash kills — a trivial task once you get stacks going inside lower tier Greater Rifts. An even more daredevil, but nevertheless viable alternative for this slot, is the attack- and movement speed amplifier Echoing Fury Echoing Fury.

Storing Frostburn Frostburn in the armor slot of the Cube nets you another source of increased elemental damage and, more importantly, a powerful crowd control effect for your Cold skills (synergistic with this Cold version of Archon Archon).

In order to complete the 6-piece bonus of the Vyr set, you will have to use a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the jewelry slot of the Cube.

In Season 33, where you get a 4th slot for the Kanai's Cube, you can move the Archon Archon utility of The Swami The Swami here to enjoy additional set bonuses from your worn equipment, as described above.

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.

7.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during GR speed farming is the Enchantress, due to her cooldown reduction- and increased attack speed bonuses, both of which are helpful to the needs of an attack speed- and CDR-heavy build such as this one.

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

Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Tower Bottomless Potion of the Tower, whose Armor-increasing properties complement the shield-based defenses of this build, as well as the naturally high All Resistances stat of Wizards (due to Intelligence scaling resistances) for optimal survivability.

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.
  • 23 Sep. 2022: Enriched the guide with additional information.
  • 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.
  • 14 Sep. 2021: Enriched the guide with additional information.
  • 22 Jul. 2021: No changes necessary for Season 24.
  • 02 Apr. 2021: Adjusted gear recommendations, added follower information.
  • 16 Jan. 2021: Overhauled variation to reflect the necessities of GR speed farming specifically.
  • 20 Nov. 2020: Added Cube recommendations for Season 22.
  • 01 Jul. 2020: Slight revision of wording to better match its progression counterpart.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 22 Nov. 2019: Substantial rework of the speedfarm guide in order to include gold utility legendaries.
  • 23 Aug. 2019: Item recommendations are revised for Season 18.
  • 17 May 2019: Guide was revised with additional recommendations for Season 17.
  • 26 Nov. 2017: Text revisions to reflect the changes to the main build.
  • 27 Oct. 2017: Revised the speedrun variant to reflect its Patch 2.6.1 buffs.
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