Vyr Archon Wizard Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation

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

Nephalem Rift Speed Farming

The Vyr Archon Wizard can deal reasonably well with Nephalem Rift Speed Farming, mostly thanks to the great mobility offered by the Teleport rune of Archon gained via the 2-piece bonus. 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 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 Teleport Icon Teleport Wormhole Wormhole 3 Storm Armor Icon Storm Armor Scramble Scramble 4 Explosive Blast Icon Explosive Blast Flash Flash
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.

Before starting the farming run, apply the two protective buffs — Storm Armor Storm Armor Scramble Scramble and Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection. Prior to your first Archon Archon activation, strive to max out the Chantodo stacks to their 20 stack cap via Explosive Blast Explosive Blast and Arcane Torrent Arcane Torrent, then enter Archon Archon form. From then on, Archon stacks should be overlapping due to The Swami The Swami effect and the ease of demolishing the difficulty, so for any subsequent Archon Archon re-activations you will not need more than a few Chantodo stacks.

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.

  • Archon Archon naturally stays as the focal point of the build, taken with the Cold rune Slow Time Slow Time.
  • Swap the progression-oriented Black Hole Black Hole to the extra maneuverability of Teleport Teleport Safe Passage Safe Passage (or even Wormhole Wormhole). You can turn this skill into a spammable spender with a Cubed Aether Walker Aether Walker, assisting this build in bounties (although we do not recommend it for the purpose).
  • Storm Armor Storm Armor will be retained in the build, but you should alter the proc-heavy Shocking Aspect Shocking Aspect rune (helpful to keep up the Halo of Karini Halo of Karini defense, which is a non-issue in T16) to the additional movement speed of Scramble Scramble.
  • Arcane Torrent Arcane Torrent Static Discharge Static Discharge and Explosive Blast Explosive Blast Flash Flash will be used mostly as Chantodo buildup material, finishing off the occasional enemy in your Archon downtime.
  • Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection and Galvanizing Ward Galvanizing Ward will be maintained as staple pieces of your protective lineup. As for the remainder of your passives, the multiplicative close range buff of Audacity Audacity and the Cooldown Reduction of Evocation Evocation remain cornerstone inclusions. Add to them the speed farm mainstay Illusionist Illusionist for a nice movement speed increase every time you teleport or slow time.
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 near-infinite toughness of a Goldwrap Goldwrap 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.

You will maintain the combination of Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace and Halo of Karini Halo of Karini from the progression build, but you should alter the timing-sensitive damage bonuses of Convention of Elements Convention of Elements to the weaker, but consistent elemental damage increase form a Cold Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan.

When farming for keys in solo games, you will be using the extra movement speed from the environment destruction-based boosts of Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards in the place of the overly defensive, progression-oriented Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer. When key farming in groups you lose your follower utility, and will need to spawn extra elites yourself by wearing Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers. You should also wear your own The Flavor of Time The Flavor of Time to extend the effects of Pylon pickups; we still recommend using Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace for the damage amplification however, so this means one of these amulets will be cubed and you will lose out the toughness utility of Goldwrap Goldwrap outlined below. This should have no significant impact in a well-equipped farming group.

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. Cold Damage (on Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan)
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Critical Hit Chance
  5. Cooldown Reduction
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Cold Damage (on Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan)
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Critical Hit Chance
  5. Cooldown Reduction
  6. 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, and it should be complemented with a 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.

Round out your standard Nephalem Rift farming gems with Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder, which increases your movement speed and provides near-infinite Toughness through its interaction with 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

You have some room for choice in your weapons Cube slot; both cooldown reduction powerhouses, Messerschmidt's Reaver Messerschmidt's Reaver (early in a Season) and In-geom In-geom (on a fully realized character) are good choices, and can allow you to chain Archon Archon form. Certain rift layouts however, and especially bounties, can counter a kill-based reset mechanic with bad density. If you intend to do bounties on Archon, it is worth considering a slower reset (by a second or two) by wearing an Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac instead of one of your rings and using Aether Walker Aether Walker in the weapon cube slot for the consistent mobility.

Stored in the armor Cube slot, Goldwrap Goldwrap synergizes with Avarice Band Avarice Band and Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder for a gold-based triumvirate that makes you richer, speeds you up and renders you practically invulnerable, allowing you to focus on killing and looting without regards for your safety. On a fully optimized character, you can consider replacing this slot with Krelm's Buff Belt Krelm's Buff Belt for the additional movement speed.

Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur will be necessary in order to complete the 6-piece bonus of Vyr's set without losing out on utility legendaries in 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 standard rift farming for keys is the Enchantress due to her numerous utility bonuses, allowing you to smooth out your speed runs even further.

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: Page added.
Show more
Show less