DMO Energy Twister Wizard Skills and Runes

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Quick Reference
    • 2.1. Skill Setup
  • 3. Builds
    • 3.1. Gear Setup
    • 3.2. Legendary Gems
    • 3.3. Kanai's Cube
  • 4. Role in the Current Meta
  • 5. Reading Further
  • 6. ChangeLog
• ×Skills and Runes
  • 1. Rotation
  • 2. Skills, Runes and Passives
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +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

General Information

Below, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing DMO Energy Twister Wizard in Diablo 3. Updated for patch 2.6.1 and Season 14.

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

Active Skills
Arcane Torrent Flame Ward Teleport Safe Passage 1 Slow Time Exhaustion 2 Energy Twister Raging Storm 3 Magic Weapon Deflection 4 Storm Armor Power of the Storm
Passive Skills
Power Hungry Unwavering Will Illusionist Unstable Anomaly

1. Rotation

As a Delsere's Magnum Opus set build, you have to constantly keep in mind your dependence on dropping Slow Times that regularly envelop your priority targets. Some leeway was given with later reworks to DMO (you do not need to be in the Slow Time radius to gain damage reduction, and affected enemies are more susceptible to damage for 5 whole seconds after exiting the bubble), but with the built-in resets coming from your manual casts of Energy Twister, you should make a point to regularly apply Slow Times across the battlefield. Your DPS mechanic comes from the interplay between channeling Arcane Torrent (which casts Energy Twisters via the worn Etched Sigil) and casting your own, manual Energy Twisters — this will ensure their merging and damage improvement of the rune Raging Storm. As a rule of thumb, try to maintain an equal ratio between Arcane Torrent channeling (for Taeguk upkeep) with your manual casts of Energy Twister and your other spells. While they are passive buffs, make a point to watch the uptime of Magic Weapon and Storm Armor, reapplying them as necessary. Last but not least, reposition smartly with Teleport.

2. Skills, Runes and Passives

Your primary damage dealer is found in Energy Twister, a former group favorite that, while under the radar of many, retains most of its monstrous AoE DPS properties. You will be taking the rune with the most damage potential, Raging Storm; when two of its twisters collide, they more than double the total damage and AoE. This enforces the unique playstyle of alternating your sources of Energy Twisters; creating one Raging Storm tornado from the Arcane Torrent- Etched Sigil combo, and immediately following with one from a manual cast, creating a maximum damage potential projectile.

As mentioned above, you will need to take Arcane Torrent, as its channeling mechanic interacts directly with the free Arcane Power spender spam of Etched Sigil, and various damage and toughness boosting legendary items tied to channeling spells ( Deathwish, Mantle of Channeling...). Rune-wise, take the damage reduction of Flame Ward, as damage output will not be the focus of this skill slot.

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 can either bolster its damage reduction angle by selecting the Exhaustion rune (our default recommendation), or its damage boosting via Time Warp.

There is some rune-alternating freedom in your utility slot as well; Magic Weapon offers an attractive, long-lasting damage buff by default, and you can either add a defensive property to it from the rune Deflection, or alleviate your near-constant resource starvation with the rune Conduit. Both options are perceived as viable, so tailor the ability to your particular needs.

Sometimes immediate repositioning will be required — evading a bad affix, engaging a larger pack of enemies for Arcane Power on Crit procs, or simply to gain a Toughness buff without losing too much of your Endless Walk damage bonuses. Teleport will cover you for all these purposes, along with the damage reduction of the Safe Passage rune.

Rounding skills out, you will be adding Storm Armor to the build. With a fire-and-forget duration of 10 minutes and a negligible damage proc, it can be easily overlooked if not for the potent flat resource cost reduction of the Power of the Storm rune and the massive damage reduction properties of the cubed Halo of Karini.

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

Two defensive staples provide the foundation of your passive selection. 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. To shield you prior to the cheat death proc, Unwavering Will will complement your semi-static fighting style and add significant Toughness with the 20% Armor and All Resistance buff.

Illusionist is one of the strongest utility picks in the Wizard's arsenal, offering an immediate reset to the vital Slow Time and Teleport upon sustaining a hit that takes 15% of your max life (which is basically every hit in a GR progression attempt). On top of that, the passive grants a 30% movement speed increase upon the use of Slow Time and Teleport, making for a near-permanent, massive speed boost in a DMO build.

Finally, take Power Hungry — it is the mirror of Audacity, reworked into a multiplicative damage increase against enemies further than 30 yards. This passive synergizes excellently with the long range orientation of the build, coming from both Frozen Orb and Zei's Stone of Vengeance. However, if you find yourself fighting more in mid-to-low ranges (either due to preference or unfamiliarity with the playstyle), you can viably alternate to a safer, more comfortable Blur selection.

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.

3. ChangeLog

• 30 Mar. 2018: Added the guide.