DMO Arcane Orbit Wizard BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points

The build incorporates the complete Delsere's Magnum Opus set, taking all six available pieces and opening up the jewelry for the Endless Walk set and its damage multiplication bonuses. Area Damage is important for the Arcane Orbit Wizard and is a recommended roll on Fierce Gauntlets (along with both Crit stats and Intelligence) and Dashing Pauldrons of Despair (along with Intelligence, Vitality and Life %). Harness of Truth and Leg Guards of Mystery should remain pure Toughness slots. Shrouded Mask and Striders of Destiny can roll Arcane Orb %, and it is recommended to seek the skill bonus on both. Note that stacking Armor benefits you because of the balancing of sources of mitigation, as All Resistance is already abundant on an Intelligence-based character.

Not skipping on any of the six available set pieces to obtain the full Delsere's Magnum Opus set bonus allows you to split between offense and defense in the jewelry slots. One of the 2.4 reworks, the Endless Walk set — The Compass Rose ring and The Traveler's Pledge amulet — adds a unique mechanic that slowly increases your damage by up to a 100% if you remain stationary, and drains it away and increases your damage reduction while moving. This is identical to the DMO Arcane Orbit playstyle, which teleports long distances into a favorably dense area and then transitions into a stationary Spectral Blade and Arcane Orb rotation (see this build's skills page for more information). Your other ring slot will be taken by the pure damage boost of Convention of Elements, whose rotation of elemental bonuses you will need to learn and time to maximize the benefits of the short-lived Arcane cycle.

Introduced in Patch 2.4, The Shame of Delsere belt is an Arcane Power regeneration powerhouse that speeds up your signature spells by 50% and restores up to 12 AP per hit.

In progression, the cubed Halo of Arlyse finds a synergistic companion in the Ancient Parthan Defenders, whose unique property triggers off Freeze effects as well (inexplicably missing from the item tooltip). With the chain triggers of Frost Nova from the ring, diving into massive fights turns from a suicide tactic into a survival tool through the numerous damage reduction procs of the bracer. An important playstyle tip to remember is to stay on the move, as crowd control on the same monster diminishes with each successive application — so always seek out fresh packs to reduce damage with.

The mandatory weapon of the progression build is the Unstable Scepter, a 2.4 addition that not only increases Arcane Orb damage, but also has a unique property that detonates Arcane Orbs twice — effectively doubling the spec's damage output.

Triumvirate is best-in-slot source for the progression Arcane Orb build, whose unique bonus stacks Arcane Orbit damage in three increments, achieved by an easy triple attack from Spectral Blade. Orb of Infinite Depth can be used in the slot interchangeably (provided you are not using the Magic Weapon Deflection variant of the push spec), depending on your better rolled item.

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.

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).

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is its own multiplier in your total damage calculation. The gem procs itself with its level 25 property when in melee range, perfectly suitable to the Arcane Orbit playstyle.

Esoteric Alteration is the strongest mitigation gem available, and its impact is noticeable in this close range caster build. Improving your elemental resistances with every gem level and adding an emergency toughness spike through the level 25 property, Esoteric Alteration ensures that enemies will have a hard time bursting you down.

Introduced in Season 4, Bane of the Stricken occupies the third and final jewelry socket. Building up your damage multiplicatively in prolonged fights and with a level 25 bonus specifically targeting Rift Guardians, this gem is designed to assist AoE heavy builds in their struggle against single target, high HP enemies.

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

The default recommendation for the weapon slot in the Cube is Orb of Infinite Depth, which turns every Explosive Blast detonation into a multiplicative damage increase and damage reduction bonus. Getting these bonuses up as soon as possible dictate the choice of the Chain Reaction rune. If you run the Magic Weapon Deflection variation of the progression build you can cube The Furnace for the 50% additional damage against elites, greatly speeding up Champion and Rift Guardian fights.

Crown of the Primus nets you the effects of all Slow Time runes except for Point of No Return (a useful omission, since that rune's stun can be ruinous during GR progression). At the mere cost of a Cube slot, you gain the additional CC and utility of Time Shell, the damage reduction of Exhaustion, the increase of damage dealt to enemies from Time Warp, and the attack speed increase of Stretch Time. On top of that, the Slow Time bubble follows you permanently, which is an excellent quality-of-life effect for the build.

As a build that regularly stands toe to toe with monsters, Halo of Arlyse will occupy the jewelry cube slot by necessity during GR progression. Halo of Arlyse will multiply the effectiveness of your Ice Armor mitigation, and provide additional crowd control. As long as the requirements of the ring are met (and they are calculated pre-mitigation), it will release a constant streak of Frost Novas, unhindered by internal cooldowns. For the progression spec, the jewelry cube slot is interchangeable with Convention of Elements depending on your better rolled item.

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.

The recommended follower for this build during solo GR progression is the Scoundrel due to his powerful crit buff, allowing you brief windows of extra damage that are well suited to the strengths of this build.

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.

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

This Season, your helm and weapon sockets will be taken over by the supremely powerful Soul Shards. For this variant, we recommend the following:

• Helm — Shard of Hatred with "You now deal 10% increased damage for every enemy" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Intelligence or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction on its Rank 2 roll.
• Weapon — Essence of Anguish with "When you deal Poison damage to an enemy, they receive 50% increased Poison damage from all sources for 10 seconds" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Arcane Skills % Increase or Weapon Damage Increase on its Rank 2 roll. Note that Essence of Anguish requires dealing Poison damage to trigger its Base Power; in this build, you accomplish this either by re-rolling the weapon damage range (the two numbers displayed just under the big total DPS number; the first Primary stat roll of any weapon) of your own weapon to Poison, or doing the same to your follower's weapon.