Wizard Class

To go in-depth with the possible playstyles of the Wizard class, refer to our specific build guides below. If you are looking for some quick tips and tricks on learning the Wizard, please keep on reading.

Looking for the best builds in Diablo 4? Follow one of the links below!

In general, Diablo 3 builds revolve around a certain highly damaging skill or alternate form to slaughter hordes of monsters with. In the case of the Wizard, this is an amalgamation of Secondary skills (more notably Arcane Orb and Arcane Torrent), Force skills (such as Meteor and Energy Twister) and Mastery skills (like Explosive Blast and Archon). Get a feel for these skills — do you like the way they play out? Do you sense the pattern in their resource management? Can you predict the positioning required to deliver the most damage possible from your selected skill?

Pick one of the listed skills above that you like the most, then take a peek at our endgame build for said skill; try to play out in your head how the full rotation works. Early on, you might have to take an endgame build and adapt it a little — lacking the necessary legendary and set bonuses, you might suffer from lacking Arcane Power and long cooldowns. Taking out a utility skill and adding a generator like Electrocute Surge of Power might be a better route.

Archon falls into the category of transformational skills in the game, but is perhaps the most transformative of them all; not only does it change your character visual and ramps up your power, but it also changes your skill loadout into an Archon-specific setup. In practice, this means you can take the skill, but you have to dedicate your entire playstyle to it — changing your standard form skills into a loadout that is meant to reset Archon's cooldown and protect you in your weaker form. Take a look at our endgame Archon guide for in-depth guidance on how to construct a Wizard like that.

In short, Archon Wizards make great use of the synergy between the barrage of small hits from Arcane Torrent Static Discharge and the cooldown reduction-per-hit powers of the Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, along with a slew of synergistic items like The Swami, Fazula's Improbable Chain and the Chantodo's Resolve set.

Wizards possess a trio of conjured armor spells — all useful in their own way, and applicable in different situations. Energy Armor has the strongest protective base, and is item independent — a very potent starting point, especially with the burst damage safety net of the Force Armor rune. Ice Armor works best in melee spellcasting builds, forming a synergistic trio between the Crystallize rune, the Halo of Arlyse ring and Ancient Parthan Defenders bracer that will render you near-invincible as you dive into the thick of the fight. Storm Armor mirrors this protective utility for ranged builds, triggering Halo of Karini. Pick an armor spell that befits your playstyle, and learn how to maximize their benefits!

Magic Weapon is another frequent inclusion, since it is able to combine its base damage buff effect with the strong protective layer of the Deflection rune. See if you have any space left in your build, and you will do no wrong to fill it with Magic Weapon.

Much like the other classes, Wizards need a tool to dive in, out and around the fray. Teleport fills that exact niche, and can be adjusted for additional utility — Safe Passage in progression, Wormhole in speedfarming, or even Calamity for synergy with the Tal Rasha set (refer to our builds for further explanation).

Teleport is rather demanding with its cooldown, but it can be worked around for content that demands high mobility (like speed GRs or bounties). Either through Illusionist, In-geom or Aether Walker, you can become one of the most mobile classes in the game, while sacrificing little of your offensive capabilities.

Builds and skill choices are obviously important, but at the end of the day Diablo is a game about farming and equipping the right items. Learning which items will benefit your class the most, and then target farming them through gambling, upgrading rares into legendaries at the Cube and even reforging them into better rolls is crucial.

All 6-piece class sets (Tal Rasha, Firebird, Delsere's Magnum Opus, Vyr), as well as the 2-piece weapon set Chantodo's Resolve, bring a valuable and powerful playstyle to the class. Wizards also have class-specific wands, staves and orbs, which are suitably valuable for the class — the Chantodo set ( Chantodo's Will and Chantodo's Force), The Grand Vizier, Unstable Scepter, Starfire, Wand of Woh, Orb of Infinite Depth, Triumvirate and Etched Sigil are notable examples. Wizards also have powerful one-handed swords like Deathwish and Etched Sigil to complement their arsenal.

The numerous Wizard playstyles rely on legendaries scattered across several gear slots; Archon Wizards depend on The Swami and Fazula's Improbable Chain, Meteor Wizards prioritize Nilfur's Boast and Mantle of Channeling, and certain DMO builds rely on The Shame of Delsere or Ranslor's Folly to complete their builds.

As mentioned above, Wizard jewelry largely hinges on the protective powerhouses Halo of Arlyse and Halo of Karini, as well as the cooldown resetting powers of Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac.

Much like your armor spells, you have to consider your passive choices to synergize with the range at which you fight. The Wizard can accommodate both melee spellcasting (with Audacity and Unwavering Will) as well as ranged sorcery (with Power Hungry and Glass Cannon). Regardless of your preferred range, you have universal passive building blocks to start with — from a cheat death with Unstable Anomaly, through a mobility tool via Illusionist, to percentage-based damage reduction from Blur.