Firebird Explosive Blast Wizard Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation

The Firebird Explosive Blast Wizard can deal reasonably well with Nephalem Rift Speed Farming, with versatile and unconditional damage at its disposal and great mobility offered by the Teleport-resetting powers of the Firebird set. 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
Disintegrate Convergence Magic Weapon Deflection 1 Explosive Blast Chain Reaction 2 Familiar Arcanot 3 Teleport Wormhole 4 Diamond Skin Prism
Passive Skills
Audacity Galvanizing Ward Illusionist Evocation

When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.

When farming keys in Torment difficulties, the Firebird Explosive Blast Wizard abandons the prolonged channeling playstyle of its Greater Rift counterparts and channels Disintegrate in short bursts — in order to Ignite the enemies (the set mechanic) and pull monsters in melee range (via the worn Ranslor's Folly). Channeling is done to keep the Combustion stacks topped up, which empowers the Explosive Blast damage and lowers the Teleport cooldown. With no Deathwish or Taeguk bonuses to keep up, you can ease the strain on your resources and channel only to Ignite enemies and to maintain stacks. The remainder of your skillset is comprised of passive ( Magic Weapon Deflection, Familiar Arcanot) and active ( Diamond Skin Prism — needs to be spammed) buffs.

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to cross over great distances faster and more efficiently take precedence.

• The use of Disintegrate is set in stone, since its powers trigger the set mechanics for both Ignition of enemies and the Combustion stacks. Use the rune Convergence for the wider beam, which should cover the entire pull once Ranslor's Folly procs.
• As usual across all variations, damage dealing duties fall onto Explosive Blast, taken with the multiple explosions and Fire-based nature (tying into the Firebird bonuses) of the Chain Reaction rune. This rune will also synergize with Orb of Infinite Depth, if you choose to use it during farming. The cooldown of Explosive Blast will be practically nullified as you chain Elite kills and take advantage of the In-geom bonus, but you will also be using Evocation in your passives to keep said cooldown naturally low.
• To keep up the considerable costs of both Explosive Blast and Disintegrate, you will be using Diamond Skin Prism for its massive, flat resource cost reduction bonuses.
• The shields from Magic Weapon Deflection will pair with the one from Galvanizing Ward to keep your Squirt's Necklace damage bonus safe from harm.
• Teleport will be vital for maneuverability during key farming; during early character progression you can stick to the defensive Safe Passage, but eventually you can adapt to the multiple charges of Wormhole — useful in sparse and prolonged Rift layouts, an inevitability in longer farm sessions.

You will still be aiming for the full 6-piece bonuses of the Firebird set, but you will shift pieces around to accommodate the inclusion of a craftable set and utility legendaries in the mix: the Captain Crimson's Trimmings set, plus the combo of Etched Sigil and Ranslor's Folly. The off-hand and bracer combo simply produces free Energy Twisters as you channel, which attain an extra pulling effect — very handy during farming. Naturally, you will have to complete this amalgamation of bonuses with a Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube.

Stat-wise, this variant is just as demanding on Resource Cost- and Cooldown Reduction stats as its Greater Rifting counterparts, and you will be striving to reach around 40% RCR and 60% CDR to maintain both consistent Disintegrate channeling and Explosive Blast spam. Thankfully, you have the CDR powerhouse In-geom to fall back on.

When it comes to jewelry, our base recommendation is to split between damage amplification and utility. For your amulet, take Squirt's Necklace — it offers massive damage multiplication bonuses at the cost of an increase of damage taken; a drawback that you will strive to nullify via the plethora of shields included in the build. For one of your rings, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac will pick up the slack whenever In-geom chaining does not line up, and will offer a speedy reset of your vital cooldowns. Your final ring should alternate between Avarice Band in group play (it offers indispensable Pickup Radius bonuses as you gather gold), or — since this ring can be equipped on your follower and have its powers affect you via the Emanate mechanics — simply use a Fire damage Stone of Jordan in solo farming. As a final hyper-optimization note, you can consider altering the second ring slot in solo play to Rechel's Ring of Larceny (if you find the SoJ damage excessive); Rechel's brings another movement speed buff and can proc itself.

For early- to mid- character progression the cooldown reduction staple of speedfarming In-geom can be your main hand weapon during standard rift farming for keystones. This allows you to slot Orb of Infinite Depth in the Cube for extra defense. Once you grow confident in your character, you can alter the main-hand to Echoing Fury for the movement speed proc, move In-geom to the Cube and drop the Orb. This will result in a lightning-fast build, and should not be too hard to handle survivability-wise.

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 still bring excellent damage multiplication value to the build in speed farming. Another "overall value" addition to speed farming can be found in Bane of the Powerful, which brings a well-rounded increase to both damage and toughness.

Round out your standard Nephalem Rift farming gems with Boon of the Hoarder, which increases your movement speed and provides screen-wide Pickup Radius via its interaction with the follower-worn Avarice Band.

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

Orb of Infinite Depth brings tremendous value to the build, especially when it comes to damage reduction. Once you grow comfortable with the build and feel like you can lose the toughness, slot In-geom here and use Echoing Fury in your hand.

In solo play, you can slot Goldwrap for the near-invulnerability it provides through the interaction with Boon of the Hoarder and Avarice Band. Nemesis Bracers can be worn by your follower and you will still receive their benefits via the Emanate mechanics, which makes certain items worn by the follower affect you as well. In group play, you will have to use the Nemesis Bracers in your armor Cube slot.

As previously mentioned, you will need to use Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube in order to maintain the full bonuses of the amalgam of sets that you have equipped.

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

Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered, which renders you immune to Crowd Control effects for a brief time after consuming it — valuable bonus to a build that lacks means to break away from CC outside of straight up evasion via teleporting.

This Season revives the Pandemonium Kill Streak buff from Season 19. Each stack grants a bonus to movement speed and damage, capping at +50% movement speed and +100% damage at 1000 kills. Hitting specific kill thresholds unleashes powerful effects. Read more in our dedicated Season of the Eternal Conflict Mechanics Guide!

While speedfarming sees limited use from this theme, Greater Rift pushing benefits significantly. Effects like Geysers (150), Meteors (400), and Angels (500) can clear elites and Rift Guardians instantly. Players may reset streaks after 150 kills to repeatedly trigger Geysers or push for 500+ kills near boss fights, often using Nemesis Bracers to spawn extra enemies.

Because the most potent effects (Geysers, Meteors, Angels) can obliterate Rift Guardians instantly up to GR150, players can retool builds for efficiency and comfort. Here’s how:

Since you can rely on killstreak procs to clear the Rift Guardian, Bane of the Stricken can be safely omitted in favor of:

• Another generic damage-scaling legendary gem ( Bane of the Trapped for builds with any form of crowd control and/or melee range, Zei's Stone of Vengeance for far ranged builds, Taeguk for channeling builds, Simplicity's Strength for primary attack-focused builds, Enforcer for pet-oriented builds, etc.)
• A survivability-oriented legendary gem ( Esoteric Alteration, Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard), or additional utility ( Gogok of Swiftness for CDR-reliant builds, Pain Enhancer for attack speed-heavy builds, or Wreath of Lightning for extra movement speed).

Adjust your equipment to items that favor durability, health sustain, and ease of movement. Consider adjusting non-essential skills for the build to ones that pull, reposition, or otherwise displace enemies to facilitate large pulls of enemy packs. In more concrete terms, this means:

• For class-specific items, Wizards should consider Halo of Karini if it's absent from the build; this is a powerful damage reduction item that incentivizes you to use Storm Armor and maintain a pull for procs at all times, synergizing well with the killstreak theme. Another strong option is Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer to significantly boost the strength of your shielding abilities. These help shore up Wizard fragility, especially in high-tier content.
• For additional options that balance between defense and offense, the class-specific offhand Orb of Infinite Depth offers a balanced boost of damage and defense for the reasonable requirement of Explosive Blast inclusion. Helpful cross-class jewelry includes Unity (combined with the same ring on the follower plus a follower immortality token), and the Endless Walk set ( The Traveler's Pledge and The Compass Rose).
• Situational items that can bolster your defenses include Stone Gauntlets, the drawbacks of which are negated via CC-immunity effects like Ice Climbers, or the Altar of Rites CC-immunity node.A good number of Wizard builds can also afford the inclusion of an Aquila Cuirass (for low AP-spenders) or a Mantle of Channeling (for channelers).
• Utility items like Nemesis Bracers are essential as more elites mean more killstreak maintenance and faster progression. When soloing, they should be equipped by your follower; in groups, at least one party member should commit to wearing them. Edge cases will see the inclusion of Strongarm Bracers (extra damage vs. displaced enemies), Warzechian Armguards or Krelm's Buff Belt (more speed for easier scouting and pulls), and an Aether Walker if you can spare the weapon slot for ultimate mobility. To facilitate large pulls, consider using a Follower equipped with The Ess of Johan, a proc-based analogue to an enemy-pulling skill (albeit outside your control).
• Skill-wise, make sure to include at least one movement skill tool like Teleport and an enemy-pulling tool like Black Hole. Take a look if you can include passives like Illusionist (for easy mobility resets) or Unstable Anomaly (for a cheat-death).