Firebird Flame Blades Wizard Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation

The Firebird 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
Diamond Skin Prism Disintegrate Chaos Nexus 1 Explosive Blast Chain Reaction 2 Magic Weapon Deflection 3 Teleport Wormhole 4 Familiar Sparkflint
Passive Skills
Audacity Dominance Galvanizing Ward 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 Wizard can alter from the slower, more measured pace of Spectral Blade Flame Blades damage dealing and focus completely on Explosive Blast Chain Reaction to deliver the damage, resulting in a very satisfying and destructive playstyle once you overpower the content. Essentially, you will be spamming Explosive Blast on cooldown that will be practically nullified with your first Elite kill due to the resetting powers of In-geom.

The Explosive Blast resource costs will be kept up via Diamond Skin Prism, which you should also reapply on cooldown. Disintegrate will still be necessary for upkeep of Combustion stacks and Igniting the enemy, but since Explosive Blast has no casting animation, you can channel Disintegrate freely and keep your set bonuses active.

The remainder of your skillset is comprised of buffs ( Magic Weapon Deflection and Familiar Sparkflint) that you simply reapply as they fall off, and a mobility skill in the face of the ubiquitous Teleport.

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 Chaos Nexus for its superior beam spread.
• As mentioned above, damage dealing duties fall onto Explosive Blast, taken with the multiple explosions (to tie into Orb of Infinite Depth) and Fire-based nature (to tie into the Firebird bonuses) of the Chain Reaction rune. The cooldown of this skill 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 ones from Galvanizing Ward and Dominance to keep your Squirt's Necklace damage bonus safe from harm. In solo play, they will be amplified via a cubed Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer.
• 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 two more sets in the mix: the craftable Aughild's Authority and Captain Crimson's Trimmings sets. Naturally, you will have to complete this triumvirate of bonuses with a Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube. Note that the item split in the table below is just a sample, as both craftable sets offer pieces in several other slots which can be shifted around according to your best rolled pieces of gear.

Stat-wise, this variant is more demanding on Resource Cost- and Cooldown Reduction stats, and you will be striving to reach around 40% RCR and 60% CDR to maintain both consistent Disintegrate channeling and Explosive Blast spam.

The Aughild 3-piece set bonus will bring considerable damage increase and damage reduction, especially against Elite enemies. The Cpt. Crimson 3-piece set bonus scales damage dealt and reduces damage taken via CDR and RCR respectively, and brings hefty 20% bonuses to both, making it an excellent inclusion.

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.

It bears mentioning once again, but the cooldown reduction staple of speedfarming In-geom should be your main hand weapon during standard rift farming for keystones.

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. To minimize downtime as you inflict devastation on your enemies, take Invigorating Gemstone — its level 25 bonus negates the single biggest nuisance to this build, crowd control impairing effects.

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 still brings tremendous value to the build, especially when it comes to damage reduction. It is simply moved to the Cube due to the 3 set puzzle you need to fit in your equipment slots.

In solo play, you can slot Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer in the armor Cube slot to enjoy its shield enhancement powers — a great boon to your Squirt's Necklace upkeep. 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).