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.

Slot	Pieces	Stat Priority
Head	Firebird's Plume	Intelligence Socket Critical Hit Chance Vitality Crowd Control Reduction (Secondary Stat) Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders	Aughild's Power	Intelligence Vitality Cooldown Reduction Life % Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat) Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso	Firebird's Breast	Intelligence 3 Sockets Vitality Life % Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat) Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Wrists	Aughild's Search	Intelligence Critical Hit Chance Fire Damage Life per Hit Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Hands	Firebird's Talons	Intelligence Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Cooldown Reduction Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Waist	Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle	Intelligence Vitality Life % Armor Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs	Captain Crimson's Thrust	Intelligence 2 Sockets Vitality Armor Life per Kill (Secondary Stat) Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Feet	Firebird's Tarsi	Intelligence Vitality Armor All Resistance Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat) Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet	Squirt's Necklace	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Fire Damage Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1	Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac	Socket Cooldown Reduction Critical Hit Chance Resource Cost Reduction Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2	Stone of Jordan (solo) Avarice Band (groups)	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Flat Damage Increase Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon	In-geom	High Weapon Damage (ideally Lightning) Intelligence (replaced by % Damage at high Paragon) Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift) Cooldown Reduction Elite Damage Increase Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Off-hand	Firebird's Eye	High Damage Range Intelligence Critical Hit Chance Arcane Power on Crit Fire Damage Cooldown Reduction

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.

Slot	Gems
Jewelry	Bane of the Trapped Invigorating Gemstone Boon of the Hoarder
Helm	Flawless Royal Diamond (Cooldown Reduction)
Torso and Pants	Flawless Royal Topaz (Damage and All Resistance)
Weapon	Flawless Royal Emerald

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.