DMO Arcane Orbit Wizard Skills and Runes

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
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +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 explain how to choose and use your skills when playing DMO Arcane Orbit Wizard in Diablo 3. Updated for patch 2.6.1 and Season 14.

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

Active Skills
Spectral Blade Barrier Blades Teleport Safe Passage 1 Arcane Orb Arcane Orbit 2 Slow Time Exhaustion 3 Explosive Blast Chain Reaction 4 Ice Armor Crystallize
Passive Skills
Arcane Dynamo Illusionist Audacity Unstable Anomaly

1. Rotation

The major offense mechanic of the progression build lies in Arcane Orb, repurposed for close combat with the Arcane Orbit rune and amplified by the DMO set 6-piece bonus. Your defenses rely on the passive armor buff of Ice Armor, the set-induced damage reduction while Slow Time is active, and on the combat-dependent bonuses of Spectral Blade Barrier Blades and the Explosive Blast Chain Reaction plus Orb of Infinite Depth combo. Your mobility cooldown, Teleport, should be used offensively and defensively depending on the situation: sometimes it will close the distance to a fight so you can drop Slow Time and Halo of Arlyse freezes, and other times it will get you out of dangerous affixes. Do not hesitate to take advantage of the Safe Passage defensive buff, as Illusionist will reset Teleport's cooldown multiple times during a fight. Remember to balance periods of stationary fighting for the Endless Walk set damage bonuses with bursts of movement to a fresh fight, as the interaction between your Halo of Arlyse and Ancient Parthan Defenders depends on the number of frozen enemies, and ones you have already frozen get progressively resistant to it.

2. Skills, Runes and Passives

Spectral Blade will serve multiple purposes in the build; firstly, it counts towards the DMO set 2-piece requirement, reducing Slow Time's cooldown for every cast. Secondly, as a signature skill it falls in the category of The Shame of Delsere belt, resulting in 50% faster attack speed and up to 12 Arcane Power per hit, regenerating your AP reserves lightning fast when pushing with the progression spec. Thirdly, it will empower your Arcane Orbit with the stacking mechanics of Triumvirate and Arcane Dynamo, or simply act as a proc for your Focus and Restraint bonuses during speedfarm. You can tailor Spectral Blade after your needs, and for GR progression we recommend the defensive function of Barrier Blades.

The basic long range spender Arcane Orb is transformed into a close combat powerhouse with the Arcane Orbit rune. Affected by the DMO 6-piece damage buff, detonating twice through the power of Unstable Scepter and boosted even further by Triumvirate and Arcane Dynamo stacks, these orbiting arcane globes will chew through your enemies' health. Make a point to recast Arcane Orb at least with a stacked Triumvirate (3 Spectral Blade attacks), but ideally after you fully stack up Arcane Dynamo as well (5 Spectral Blade attacks).

Slow Time is integral to DMO setups, amplifying the damage of multiple skills against affected enemies, as well as cutting incoming damage by 60%. You will augment its damage reducing properties with another 25% from the Exhaustion rune during GR progression.

Explosive Blast will be part of both the progression spec and the speedfarming variation, serving as protection for the former, and a main damage dealer for the latter. You will be taking the multiple explosions of the Chain Reaction rune, quickly maximizing the damage reduction benefits from the Orb of Infinite Depth source. An alternative for the slot when progressing in GRs is found in the defense and damage amplifier Magic Weapon Deflection. This long lasting steroid remains quietly in the background and procs consistently off Spectral Blades and Arcane Orbs. This variation allows you to run The Furnace in the Cube for a significant damage increase against elites, but limits your overall damage reduction. Deciding between these two variations is up to personal preference, as their performance in GRs is very comparable.

When pushing Greater Rifts, immediate repositioning will often be required — evading a bad affix, engaging fresh enemies for Ancient Parthan Defenders procs, or simply to gain a Toughness buff without losing maxed Endless Walk bonuses. Teleport will fulfill all these purposes with the damage reduction of the Safe Passage rune.

For additional protection in GRs, we will be using Ice Armor with the massive bulwark of Crystallize. The short reach of the build will inevitably put you in melee brawls, refreshing your Crystallize stacks constantly. The added value from Halo of Arlyse will bring excellent crowd control on top of the mitigation, solidifying Ice Armor as the defensive spell of choice.

This concludes the overview of the Active Skills, now let us look through the Passives.

Reworked into a comparable function to other cheat deaths, Unstable Anomaly gives you one shot at dodging a lethal situation. Operating on a standard 60-second cooldown and adding a 3-second stun to nearby enemies — plus a solid 400% max life shield for 5 seconds — it will become a constant companion to your Greater Rift pushes. An alternative to this passive is Unwavering Will, synergizing with the static fighting style of the build and adding significant Toughness with the 20% Armor buff.

Another powerful survival tool is hidden in your Illusionist passive, feeding additional CDR into your Slow Time and turning Teleport from a strategic cooldown into a constantly available asset. The requirement of 15% life taken per hit is calculated prior to mitigation and translates into “any hit taken” in high Greater Rifts. The additional 30% movement speed after using some of the build's core abilities is just icing on the cake.

Audacity is a natural inclusion in melee range spellcasting builds like this one, bringing an impressive 30% multiplicative damage increase against enemies within 15 yards.

Arcane Dynamo synergizes excellently with the GR progression build that already has a signature skill buildup mechanic from Triumvirate. Offering the whopping 60% multiplicative increase of your next spender with fully stacked Flashes of Insight, Arcane Dynamo necessitates a 5 Spectral Blade to 1 Arcane Orb rotation for the pushing build.

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.