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

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Video Guide
  • 3. Quick Reference
    • 3.1. Skill Setup
  • 4. Builds
    • 4.1. Gear Setup
    • 4.2. Legendary Gems
    • 4.3. Kanai's Cube
  • 5. Role in the Current Meta
  • 6. Reading Further
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Skills and Runes
  • 1. Rotation
  • 2. Skills, Runes and Passives
• ×Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points
  • 1. Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives
  • 2. Paragon Points
  • 3. Gems
  • 4. Kanai's Cube
  • 5. Follower
• +Speed Farming Variation
  • 1. Normal Rift Speed Farming Variation
  • 2. Adapting Skills
  • 3. Adapting Gear
  • 4. Adapting Gemming
  • 5. Adapting Kanai's Cube

General Information

Below, we detail the items and gems that you should use for your DMO Arcane Orbit Wizard in Diablo 3 and why. We also list your paragon points and Kanai's Cube items. Updated for patch 2.6 and Season 11.

The other pages of our DMO Arcane Orbit Wizard guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

1. Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives

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. 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. This bonus will be vital in Greater Rift pushes in order to maintain the damage reduction of a cubed Aquila Cuirass.

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 rolls with up to 65% Arcane Orb damage, but also has a unique affix 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 by up to 600% at the full 3 stacks, 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.

Slot	Pieces	Stat Priority
Head	Shrouded Mask	Intelligence Socket Critical Hit Chance Arcane Orb % Vitality
Shoulders	Dashing Pauldrons of Despair	Intelligence Vitality Area Damage Life % Armor
Torso	Harness of Truth	Intelligence 3 Sockets Vitality Reduced damage from Elites Armor
Wrists	Ancient Parthan Defenders	Intelligence Critical Hit Chance Arcane Damage Vitality Armor
Hands	Fierce Gauntlets	Intelligence Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Area Damage Vitality
Waist	The Shame of Delsere	Intelligence Vitality Armor Life %
Legs	Leg Guards of Mystery	Intelligence 2 Sockets Vitality Armor
Feet	Striders of Destiny	Intelligence Vitality Arcane Orb % Armor Movement Speed
Amulet	The Traveler's Pledge	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Arcane Damage Intelligence
Ring #1	The Compass Rose	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Area Damage Intelligence
Ring #2	Convention of Elements	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Area Damage Intelligence
Weapon	Unstable Scepter	High Damage Range Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift) Intelligence % Weapon Damage Area Damage Vitality
Off-hand	Triumvirate (Best in Slot) Orb of Infinite Depth (Alternative)	High Damage Range Intelligence Crit Chance Arcane Orb % Area Damage

2. Paragon Points

Slot	Paragon Points
Core	Movement Speed up to 25% cap Intelligence Vitality Maximum Arcane Power
Offense	Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Attack Speed Cooldown Reduction
Defense	Armor Life % All Resistance Life Regeneration
Utility	Area Damage Life on Hit Resource Cost Reduction Gold Find

3. Gems

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.

Slot	Gems
Jewelry	Bane of the Trapped Esoteric Alteration Bane of the Stricken
Helm	Flawless Royal Amethyst (Toughness)
Torso and Pants	Flawless Royal Topaz (Damage and All Resistance)
Weapon	Flawless Royal Emerald

4. Kanai's Cube

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.

Aquila Cuirass will halve incoming damage as long as Arcane Power does not dip below 90% of its reserve, which is an uncompromising teaching tool on using Spectral Blade with The Shame of Delsere during GR progress. Be mindful of your AP spending if you are using the Explosive Blast variation of the build to progress, as it consumes slightly more AP on a regular basis than the Magic Weapon variation.

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.

5. Follower

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.

About the Author

This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.