Explosive Blast Farming Wizard Greater Rifting Variation

Last updated on Jan 10, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 15 comments
Build Variations Updated for Season 30, Patch 2.7.7 Main Build Greater Rifts Speeds Nephalem Rift Farming
1.

Nephalem Rift Speed Farming and Bounties

The Tal Rasha Explosive Blast Wizard is pretty good at Nephalem Rift Speed Farming, thanks to the versatility of the Tal Rasha set that allows you to mix and match helpful bonuses during farming. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Electrocute Icon Electrocute Surge of Power Surge of Power Right Mouse Button Teleport Icon Teleport Calamity Calamity 1 Frost Nova Icon Frost Nova Frozen Mist Frozen Mist 2 Explosive Blast Icon Explosive Blast Chain Reaction Chain Reaction 3 Diamond Skin Icon Diamond Skin Prism Prism 4 Magic Weapon Icon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection
Passive Skills
2.

Adapting Rotation and Skills

You will maintain all the skill and passive selections from the Greater Rift speed farming build — as all the skills chosen, as well as the general playstyle will be identical in standard T16 Nephalem Rifts; they will simply go even faster, due to the smaller enemy health pools. One small change you can consider is to alter Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection to Storm Armor Storm Armor Scramble Scramble, if you feel that you comfortably overwhelm the content and would like to include even more movement speed into the build.

The rotation stays the same; refresh Magic Weapon Magic Weapon (or Storm Armor Storm Armor) at their 10-minute cooldowns, and re-apply Diamond Skin Diamond Skin Prism Prism as soon as it comes off cooldown — meaning to spam it, as In-geom In-geom procs will ensure you can constantly abuse its potent Arcane Power reduction. Spamming is par for the course for the remainder of the build, as Explosive Blast Explosive Blast Chain Reaction Chain Reaction will be your main damage dealer, and Frost Nova Frost Nova Frozen Mist Frozen Mist needs to be cast regularly to maintain the Tal Rasha / Elemental Exposure Elemental Exposure buffs. Zap left and right with Electrocute Electrocute for Tal Rasha and Bastions of Will set maintenance, and Teleport Teleport Calamity Calamity from fight to fight with reckless abandon.

3.

Adapting Gear

The Tal Rasha's Elements set remains gloriously adaptable in T16 farming, and you should largely keep the same split between pieces as you do in Greater Rift speed farming: 5 pieces of Tal's, plus utility inclusions. It is recommended that you keep wearing the 2 pieces of the craftable Cpt. Crimson set (Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle and Captain Crimson's Waders Captain Crimson's Waders) when you farm on your own, since your follower can wear the craftable sets Sage's Journey (doubled Death's Breath drops) and Cain's Destiny (chance for extra Greater Rift Keystones) and emanate their power as if you were wearing them yourself. When you farm in groups however, drop the Cpt. Crimson's pieces for Sage's Ribbon Sage's Ribbon and Sage's Passage Sage's Passage, as you will have no follower and have to take care of the extra Death's Breath drops yourself. Ideally, you will also carry 2 pieces of Cain's set (i.e., Cain's Habit Cain's Habit and Cain's Insight Cain's Insight) in your inventory and right before the Rift Guardian kill, you will swap to them for the chance of additional GR keystone drops.

Utility slots also vary according to solo or group play, as you have to take care of certain bonuses that are usually relegated to the follower yourself when partying up. The bracer and shoulder slots that are occupied by Aughild pieces in the GR speedfarm variant are better taken by Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards (for the speed boost), and either the Act I bounty cache legendary Pauldrons of the Skeleton King Pauldrons of the Skeleton King (for the extra cheat death proc in solo play), or Homing Pads Homing Pads (for the safety during town portal when partying up).

The jewelry can stay on Bastions of Will set, Focus Focus and Restraint Restraint when you solo. When grouping up however, you need to equip Avarice Band Avarice Band yourself for its valuable interaction with Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder and Goldwrap Goldwrap. Pair it with a Fire damage Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan for a steady source of additional damage.

Similarly to the Greater Rift speed farming setup, your weapon and offhand need to stay on the Explosive Blast Explosive Blast-dedicated legendaries Wand of Woh Wand of Woh and Orb of Infinite Depth Orb of Infinite Depth.

3.1.

Adapting to Bounties

While we do not recommend this build for Bounties, it can be worked with, if you desire to. Note that many bounty objectives will have too few elites to justify In-geom In-geom in the weapon Cube slot. It is best replaced by an Aether Walker Aether Walker, which turns Teleport Teleport into a spender and allows near infinite mobility. To accommodate the AP spending of Teleport Teleport, you can also swap Elemental Exposure Elemental Exposure from the standard setup for Astral Presence Astral Presence's passive AP regen.

You can also cube Krelm's Buff Belt Krelm's Buff Belt over Goldwrap Goldwrap in the armor Cube slot. Its movement speed bonus will be frequently triggered during the long distance runs associated with Bounties.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Intelligence
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Vitality
  5. Crowd Control Duration Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Intelligence
  2. Explosive Blast % Damage
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Area Damage or Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Intelligence
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Explosive Blast % Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Fire % Damage
  4. Life per Hit or Vitality
  5. Reduced Damage Melee Attacks (Secondary stat)
Hands
  1. Intelligence (or Area Damage at high Paragon)
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. Life %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Intelligence
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. All Resistance
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Fire % Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Crowd Control Duration Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Crowd Control Duration Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  3. Intelligence (or % Damage at high Paragons)
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Area Damage
Off-hand
  1. High Damage Range
  2. Intelligence
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Explosive Blast % Damage
  6. Area Damage

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.

3.2.

Altar of Rites

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).

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.

4.

Adapting Gems

Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped still bring excellent damage multiplication value to the build in T16 rifts, and remains in the build. Bane of the Powerful Bane of the Powerful can also remain from the GR speed farming build if you feel the need for its toughness and damage boosts, but once you grow comfortable with the build, you should take Wreath of Lightning Wreath of Lightning in this slot for its movement speed bonuses, and lightning procs which decimate nearby destructible environments, and trigger your Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards constantly.

Round out your standard Nephalem Rift farming gems with Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder, which increases your movement speed and provides near-infinite Toughness through its interaction with Avarice Band Avarice Band (either worn by yourself in groups or by your follower in solo play), and the cubed Goldwrap Goldwrap.

4.1.

Season 30 Soul Shards

In Season 30, your helm and weapon sockets will be taken over by the supremely powerful Soul Shards. For this variant, we recommend the following:

  • HelmFragment of Destruction with "When you apply Mark of Destruction to an enemy, you increase your Movement Speed by 5% for 7 seconds. Max 10 Stacks" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Intelligence or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction on its Rank 2 roll.
  • WeaponEssence of Anguish with "Your Movement Speed and Cooldown Reduction can be increased up to 15 times by dealing Poison damage to an enemy" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Fire 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.
Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

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

5.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

Both In-geom In-geom (for its tremendous cooldown-resetting powers) and Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur (for its set piece requirement reduction) are invaluable for this build and remain in the T16 farming variant as well. If you desperately want to take this build into Bounties, either communicate with your group that you want to take high kill count, elite-heavy bounties, or — as a last resort — consider taking Aether Walker Aether Walker in In-geom In-geom's place.

When farming normal rifts, the preferable item for the armor Cube slot is Goldwrap Goldwrap. Synergizing with Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder and Avarice Band Avarice Band, Goldwrap Goldwrap will render you practically invulnerable and allow you to focus on killing and looting without regards for your safety.

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.

6.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during standard T16 rifts farming is the Enchantress due to her vast array of bonuses that complement this build; most notably, Prophetic Harmony Prophetic Harmony for the Cooldown Reduction and Amplification Amplification for the elemental damage increase, both of which you can attain by using a Hand of the Prophet Hand of the Prophet.

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.

7.

Legendary Potion

The preferred potions for this build are Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered (giving you a brief window of CC immunity to counter your lack of reliable crowd control breakers), or Bottomless Potion of the Tower Bottomless Potion of the Tower (whose Armor-increasing properties complement the naturally high All Resistances stat of Wizards). Pick whichever you feel helps you out the most.

8.

Changelog

  • 10 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 06 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 23 Oct. 2021: Revised gear recommendations for the current state of the game.
  • 22 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
  • 02 Apr. 2021: Added follower recommendation.
  • 20 Nov. 2020: Added Cube recommendations for Season 22.
  • 01 Jul. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 22 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
  • 23 Aug. 2019: Reviewed and approved for Season 18.
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