Wizard Black Hole Build Guide for Challenge Rifts

Carefully balancing between survivability, single-target competence and massive AoE damage dealing, this build is meant to support the Wizard in the scaling difficulties of Challenge Rift attempts. The build takes full advantage of the massive, build-defining pull of Black Hole, and follows it up with the signature Wizardly devastation of Meteor and Arcane Wind.

If you are interested in approaching a different type of content, please see our other Wizard builds below.

The core skill to grasp while playing the Wizard in Challenge Rifts is playing around the Meteor delayed drop and its subsequent stun, and following it up with the dual charges of Arcane Wind before the crowd control wears off, and without jeopardizing your safety. Try to form pulls of enemies rather than dealing with individual stragglers by taking Magic Missile potshots at smaller groups, drawing them into a bigger clump of monsters. Of course, this becomes a balancing act with the progressively harder-hitting and sturdier enemies in Challenge Rifts, as you can just as easily overwhelm yourself. As you soften the pull with Magic Missiles, make a judgment call on its size and commit with a Black Hole pull. Follow it up with Meteor right on top of the pull, and drop both charges of Arcane Wind for maximum carnage. Rinse and repeat the process outlined above as you wait for the considerable cooldown of Black Hole to wear off. On the Challenge Rift boss, Magic Missile becomes a significant factor in your success — as you spam all of your abilities and the Ultimate Ice Missile in a DPS race against the timer.

Primary Skill: Magic Missile is a single-target-oriented Primary Attack that hits surprisingly hard for a basic ability, and will be able to whittle enemies down even as it is interwoven as a filler in your basic rotations. While the remainder of your skill lineup will mostly focus on AoE, Magic Missile is best used to chunk down priority targets, and should be cast in their proximity to ensure it homes in on the correct target. The Ice Missile Ultimate is decent and grows in value in content with scaling difficulty, i.e. Challenge Rifts and Raids.

AoE Damage Dealer 1: Meteor is one of the hardest-hitting skills at the Wizard's disposal, and the Burning ground effect it provides upon landing enables elemental synergies that further solidify its place in endgame builds. The momentary delay before the Meteor lands is part of the skillshot hurdle you need to overcome to master the skill, but with some practice and/or crowd control at your disposal (i.e. the pulling effect of Black Hole), nuking enemies from orbit becomes trivial. Meteor has several standout legendaries that enhance it, most notably Starcaller's Drapery which extends the radius of its devastating effect.

AoE Damage Dealer 2: Arcane Wind is one of the first AoE abilities available to Wizards, and is able to affect and crowd control enemies in a decently large, front-facing, cone-shaped area. Unfortunately, it has an unwieldy charge-up mechanic baked into its base effect, making it undesirable to use in its default state. Thankfully, Arcane Wind finds a strong cast of supporting legendaries, with a standout item in the face of Windshaper — whose tornado-like alteration of the base effect and interaction with Burning ground effects (i.e. from Meteor) propel it well into endgame viability.

Control: Black Hole is one of the strongest utility additions you can make to your Wizard's arsenal. Its powerful monster-pulling effect more than makes up for the middling damage, serving as an excellent opener in battle and allowing the remainder of your AoE-oriented roster to shine as follow ups. Black Hole sports several supporting legendaries, with a standout in the form of the generous radius increase from Cowl of the Abyss.

• Alternative: If you are doing Challenge Rifts in a group and you already have a strong pull ability in the party, you can freely alternate this skill slot to another hard-hitting damage dealer, such as Ice Crystal or Scorch. In soloing circumstances, you can consider keeping Black Hole and replacing Teleport instead, but this leaves you very vulnerable to getting cornered; use this alteration at your own risk.

Mobility: Teleport is the solitary movement skill available to Wizards, barring The Siphon enhancing Lightning Nova into a movement buff. Teleport is a staple to pretty much all endgame Wizard builds, and the heavier they lean into farming content, the more necessary its inclusion becomes. The skill sports a good amount of supporting legendaries — most notably Riftdancer's Stride and Lyan's Resonant Wisdom, which add an offense-oriented aspect to the skill and make it a surprisingly effective opener in battle.

Equipment is split into Primary (right side of character screen) and Secondary (left side).

Primary equipment includes the Main-hand, Off-hand, Head, Shoulders, Chest, and Legs slots of your character sheet. These slots can — and should — be filled by Legendary items, since their legendary powers and ability to be socketed with Legendary gems vastly overpowers lower tier gear. Of course, these slots will be temporarily filled with Common (Grey), then Magic (Blue), and then Rare (Yellow) gear, before graduating into Legendaries (Golden).

The suggested Legendaries for Black Hole Wizards in Challenge Rifts are:

• Main-hand: Windshaper — This legendary main-hand wand alters the base powers of Arcane Wind into a tornado with a devastating damage-over-time effect, especially in combination with Burning ground that ignites it for 50% more damage.
• Off-hand: Unrepentant Gale — This legendary off-hand source increases the maximum Arcane Wind charges by 1, effectively doubling the post- Meteor carnage you can inflict over a large targeted area.
• Head: Cowl of the Abyss — This legendary helm increases the radius of Black Hole by 20%, and can be further Awakened to reduce the ability's cooldown by 10% — making it a much stronger and more available tool to group enemies with.
• Shoulders: Shoulders of the Cataclysm — These legendary shoulders have a simple, yet undeniable effect: increasing Meteor damage by 10%, which can be further Awakened for another 10% damage to one of your main damage dealers.
• Chest: Starcaller's Drapery — This legendary chest increases the radius of Meteor by a generous 20%, and can be Awakened to also increase the skill's damage by 10%.
• Legs: Galebringer's Leggings — These legendary pants have a simple, yet undeniable effect: increasing Arcane Wind damage by 10%, which can be further Awakened for another 10% damage to one of your main damage dealers.

Secondary equipment includes the Amulet, Rings, Hands, Waist, and Feet slots of your character sheet. These slots can — and should — be filled with Set items, since the bonuses they form once completed vastly overpowers lower tier gear. Of course, these slots will be temporarily filled with Common (Grey), then Magic (Blue), and then Rare (Yellow) gear, before graduating into Sets (Green). Secondary equipment can only be socketed with Normal gems.

The recommended set for Black Hole Wizards in Challenge Rifts is Feasting Baron's Pack for its crowd control-lengthening properties (improving the control you get over pulls from the Meteor stuns), as well as the increased damage against enemies affected by your CC. The set consists of:

• The Gaoler (Waist) — Farmed at Temple of Namari in difficulty Hell I and above.
• The Tyrant (Feet) — Farmed at Cavern of Echoes in difficulty Hell I and above.
• The Mailed Fist (Hands) — Farmed at Kikuras Rapids in difficulty Hell II and above.
• The Subjugator (Neck) — Farmed at Destruction's End in difficulty Hell II and above.
• The Turnkey (Ring 1) — Farmed at Tomb of Fahir in difficulty Hell IV and above.
• The Prisoner (Ring 2) — Farmed at Forgotten Tower in difficulty Hell IV and above.

The set bonuses of Feasting Baron's Pack are as follows:

• 2-piece Set Bonus: Increases the duration of your abilities that cause loss of control by 30%.
• 4-piece Set Bonus: Increases damage done from all sources by 15% to enemies suffering under your loss of control effects.
• 6-piece Set Bonus: Unleash a nova of ice each time you defeat an enemy afflicted by your loss of control effects, dealing X damage to nearby enemies and Freezing them for 4 seconds. Cannot occur more often than once every 40 seconds.

Improving your attributes in Diablo Immortal generally revolves around increasing the total amount of Combat Rating, or CR. Every primary attribute point (Strength, Fortitude, Vitality, Willpower, and Intelligence) grants you 1 point of CR.

The priority attribute for Wizards is Intelligence, which gives +0.3 Damage per point; given otherwise identical options, use the one with higher Intelligence to increase your DPS. Second in the priority order is Fortitude, which adds to your Armor Penetration — indirectly increasing damage dealt by also improving your crit chance. This attribute suffers from diminishing returns due to crit caps, but is still quite valuable. Third in the priority order is Vitality, which simply increases your Life total; the longer you can stave off death, the better.

Stat priority order and stat benefits for Wizards are as follows:

1. Intelligence — Grants +0.3 Damage to Wizards, and +1 to your total CR.
2. Fortitude — Grants +0.1 Armor Penetration, which affects your crit chance. It also grants +0.1 Armor; Armor increases your Block chance, and blocking attacks mitigates 20% of the damage dealt. More mitigation is never amiss, and even more so when dealing with riskier content like the Helliquary. It also adds +1 to your total CR.
3. Vitality — Grants +3 Life; the more you can add to your total health pool, the better. Notoriously frail classes like the Wizard benefit nicely from stacking at least somewhat into Vitality. This attribute also adds +1 to your total CR.
4. Willpower — Grants +0.1 Potency and 0.1 Resistance. Potency increases the duration of harmful effects that you inflict on your foes. Resistance lowers the duration of harmful effects inflicted by your enemies on you. This attribute also adds +1 to your total CR.
5. Strength — Grants +1 CR. This attribute does nothing else for Wizards, and should be avoided as much as possible.

You should not put an emphasis on Special Attributes when considering between gear pieces. This is due to the overpowering importance of Primary Attributes and your CR total. That being said, the better Special Attributes are the two Crit Stats (Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage), Cooldown Reduction, Beneficiary Effect Duration, and Movement Speed. You can also consider Increased Damage to Players for PvP gear.

Pieces of Primary Gear that you upgrade at the Blacksmith attain up to three additional Bonus Attributes for Reforging at Ranks 6, 11, and 16. These Bonus Attributes belong to "families" (outlined and ranked below); a Family Bonus can be unlocked if all three Bonus Attributes are from the same family. Multiple Primary Gear pieces can have the same Family Bonus to improve your proc chance. The process of Reforging is done with the Reforge Stone consumable. Note that only Primary Gear pieces can be reforged; Secondary Gear pieces cannot. For Wizards, priority Bonus Attributes are:

1. Wildfire Stone is mostly valuable due to its innate attributes, as it brings valuable Critical Hit Chance to the table. The Hydra summon from the Family Bonus is mostly an extra minion to soak up damage.
2. Vengeance Stone brings a single-target-oriented Family Bonus that becomes increasingly important as you push the difficulty of the content you are doing, i.e. Challenge Rifts. Its ability to enhance all damage dealt with a Primary Attack proc is an excellent boon to any build.
3. Barrier Stone has a Family Bonus that brings some much-needed mitigation to Wizards, a class that is notorious for its frailty. The absorption shield is paired with some excellent innate attributes like Damage Taken Decreased and Block Chance, which further reduce incoming hurt.
4. Jolt Stone offers situationally valuable bonuses; it has Beneficial Effect Duration Increased as an innate attribute, which is decent for groups, and a Cheat Death proc which is never amiss when soloing content. Its Family Bonus brings soft CC to attackers, which is decent mostly for PvP.
5. Tremor Stone offers some marginally useful bonuses when doing PvP, but since its (otherwise excellent) Family Bonus only functions in melee range, it is all but lost on Wizards.
6. Ravager Stone offers summoner-oriented innate attributes that are all but useless to Wizards. Its Family Bonus requires enemies to be slain to proc, significantly diminishing its usefulness when doing progression content like Challenge Rift bosses and Helliquary.

As per tradition for Diablo games, socketed gear allows you to insert beneficial gems according to your needs. In Diablo Immortal, gems are divided between Normal Gems (socketable in Secondary Gear) and Legendary Gems (socketable in Primary Gear).

Normal Gems can only be socketed in Secondary Gear. Normal gems are divided into Red, Blue and Yellow sockets, and their priority is listed below. Priority-wise, gems are decent power increases to your character, but should never come at the cost of Primary Attributes and your CR score. Go for Red and Blue gems over Yellow if possible, as they provide a stronger bonus overall.

• Red Sockets: Prioritize Tourmaline as it provides a straight Damage increase. Ruby is also decent for the Life increase, but only if you lack Tourmalines.
• Blue Sockets: Prioritize Sapphire, which increases your Armor Penetration, and your Critical Hit Chance stat as a result. Note that Crit Chance provided from Sapphires has diminishing returns, capping out at 33%; when benefits from ArPen get too insignificant, swap to Aquamarine. Aquamarine provides Armor, which is a decent source of damage mitigation.
• Yellow Sockets: Prioritize Citrine for the Potency gains, increasing the duration of harmful effects you inflict on enemies; however small its benefits, they trump the Resistance effects provided from Topaz.

Legendary Gems can only be socketed in Primary Gear. They provide unique and very powerful bonuses on top of a robust stack of stat increases. Legendary Gems are found in Elder Rifts enhanced by the Crest consumables, as well as through crafting at the Jeweler in Westmarch.

Early on in Wizard character progression, you should use common, 1- and 2-Star Legendary Gems like:

• Fervent Fang — Can be obtained from the Battle Pass, saving you some Crests. Provides a stacking damage increase against a target with successive attacks; great for single-target damage.
• Everlasting Torment — For the mere cost of a critical hit, this gem inflicts a considerable DoT and an Attack Speed increase to boot. Even at a low quality, this gem starts off with incredible stats and fits nicely from the get-go.
• Berserker's Eye — This gem increases damage dealt at the cost of an increase in damage taken. Wizards can balance out that damage intake with mitigation, making the gem a nice fit for the class overall.
• Chained Death — This is a great early game gem, especially during farming where you usually pull hordes of enemies to maximize your AoE skills. It amplifies your damage the more enemies you fight, encouraging chaining fights together.
• Lightning Core — Despite its low proc chance, this damage-dealing gem can wipe out entire packs when activated, or focus down a larger foe, making it a decent addition to your legendary gem lineup.
• Seled's Weakening — With an increase to all damage dealt as well as extra damage dealt to Elites once it reaches Rank 3, this legendary gem provides a solid starter bonus for the paltry requirement of killing an Elite monster once every 60 seconds — trivial during farming PvE content.

When perfecting your character for endgame content, the 5-Star Best-in-Slot Legendary Gems for Wizards include:

• Blood-Soaked Jade — With its Damage and Movement Speed increases, it is largely considered to be the best legendary gem in the game for pretty much all forms of content.
• Seeping Bile — The value of this gem scales with the number of attacks you inflict, fitting well into Wizard builds that vortex enemies in clumps and scorch the very earth beneath them. With a considerable damage proc and a spreading effect, it is one of the best additions to your legendary gem lineup.
• Frozen Hearth — With percentage-based mitigation against ranged damage, this is one of the strongest defensive legendary gems you can support your character with.
• Blessing of the Worthy — Wizards dive in melee ranges surprisingly often for their frail stature, making the retaliation proc of this gem quite valuable.
• Chip of Stone Flesh — This is a PvP powerhouse of a gem, inflicting hard CC and increasing damage dealt on affected targets. It also provides decent value for progression content.
• Howler's Call — Triggered off Primary Attacks — in the Wizard's case, the relentless Magic Missile spam — this legendary gem adds yet another hard-hitting ranged proc to your overall DPS.

Paragon Points are character-specific progression system that allows you to advance in power after you reach maximum level. Each level gives you a Paragon point to spend into currently available nodes on the five Paragon Trees. While Paragon Trees are specialized for certain tasks, you should always keep in mind the tenets of character building — increasing damage and mitigation as much as you can. With that in mind, focus down the Vanquisher tree first, pick up the experience bonus from the Treasure Hunter tree, pick up whatever is useful from the Gladiator tree, and finish off with the group powerhouse of the Soldier tree. Always keep in mind that the (circular) Persistent Attributes are always active once leveled, but the (square) Specialization Skills are only applied when their respective Paragon Tree is active.

• Vanquisher Tree: The offensive focus of this tree makes it the best starting point for all characters. It is recommended that you start with the middle row, maxing out Damage and picking up Zeal. Go down the bottom row, maxing out Damage and picking up Wrath. Finally, go along the top row, maxing out Potency, putting the point in Exorcism, and finishing off with Deeper Pockets and Heart of Wrath. This puts you at Paragon Level 49.
• Treasure Hunter Tree: This tree unlocks at Paragon 50 and focuses on rewarding you more for your grinding efforts, making it an attractive mid-progression pickup. Go through the middle row, maxing Armor to attain Swift Learner. Then go on straight by maxing out the Damage node. This puts you at Paragon 70.
• Go back to the Vanquisher Tree. Max out the Life nodes in the mid row that follow Zeal, and put one point in Judgment to finish off that row. Then, go to the bottom row and put 3 points into Armor Penetration, which puts you exactly at Paragon 99.
• Right around this point, you have a decision to make. If you focus on PvE content, you should divert your attention back to the Survivor Tree — the other tree unlocked by default. Start out by maxing Life, picking up a point in Unyielding and progressing downwards. Max out Armor, then through the middle row — taking Escape Artist, additional Life, and Precognition along the way. Finish off with the coveted Damage increase. If you focus on PvP content, you should focus on the Gladiator Tree instead; this tree unlocks at Paragon 100, and offers brawling-oriented bonuses. Start off with maxing Armor Penetration, picking Uncontrollable right after it and continuing upwards. Max out Life, attain Quick Witted, and go into maxing Resistance and the second Life node. Get the Cheat Death right above the Life node. Finish with the consistently desirable Damage.
• At this point, you are hovering around the Paragon 180-185 point. One thing to consider is going back to the Vanquisher Tree to finish off the bottom right Armor Penetration node. You can also divert to the Treasure Hunter Tree to grab Gold Find and its subsequent Armor Penetration node. Alternatively, if you group up a lot, you can tab over to the Soldier Tree. This tree unlocks at Paragon 150 and is focused on grouping bonuses and provides tremendous utility for most modes of play. Take Hold Formation and head down to Resistance, then even further down into Damage. Attain the full bottom row — Battle Morale into Armor Penetration into Sacrifice. Then, finish off the middle row with Combat Veteran and Potency. Finally, go through the top row of Life and First Aid.

It is important to reiterate that your utmost priority is picking up all the damage nodes you can, deviating into one tree or another only to further that goal. Secondary valuable pickups are found in Armor Penetration and Life nodes. Once you are done with leveling all the Damage nodes, you are free to fill out Paragon trees as you see fit, as well as to activate specific Trees for the needs of the content you are doing.

When you turn in Bestiary pages, you will receive a class-specific consumable. For Wizards, this item is the Scroll of Westmarch, which opens a portal to Westmarch that any party members can use. This is a very underwhelming consumable; still, it can be occasionally useful, so do not hesitate to use it.