LoD Frozen Orb Wizard Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation
Nephalem Rift Speed Farming
The LoD Frozen Orb Wizard can
deal reasonably well with Nephalem Rift Speed Farming, mostly thanks to
overwhelming damage potential offered by Frozen Orb that allows you to
include
Aether Walker in the build, and the freedom from set pieces that
allows you to spread various utility legendaries for mobility. 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 |
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Passive Skills |
Adapting Rotation
When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.
The T16 key farming build will mimic the GR speed farming rotation, but sped
up one step further: with extremely aggressive Teleports into
fights and decimating them with
Frozen Orbs — ideally still using
the optimal 40 yard range for the peak detonation damage, but not nearly as
important as in GRs. Of course, you should not forget to stack up
Triumvirate with
Electrocute
Surge of Power, but this will come
naturally through gameplay as you restore Arcane Power and draw monster aggro
prior to the
Frozen Orb barrage.
Storm Armor
Scramble and
Magic Weapon
Deflection will keep you safe as you recklessly port around
the rift in search of the next big fight, and
Familiar
Arcanot will keep
your Arcane Power reserves flowing; just do not let their 10 minute duration
distract you from refreshing them in between runs.
Adapting Skills
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.
- Your main damage dealer remains
Arcane Orb, taken with the highest damage potential of the
Frozen Orb rune.
- To manage the gluttonous Arcane Power spending of your damage dealer in this
The Shame of Delsere-less variant, as well as to keep your
Triumvirate stacked, you will need to adopt an Arcane Power-generating Signature Spell. Our base recommendation is
Electrocute
Surge of Power, but you have other options —
Shock Pulse
Power Affinity and
Spectral Blade
Siphoning Blade.
- With the kill speed of this build in T16 farm, a grouping tool can be too
much of a hassle; feel free to exchange
Black Hole from the GR variations for the passive Arcane Power restoration of
Familiar
Arcanot.
- Mobility on the other hand is just as valuable, and
Teleport remains a staple inclusion for T16 farm, along with the multiple charges of the
Wormhole rune.
- The combo of 10-minute protective buffs —
Magic Weapon
Deflection and
Storm Armor (with
Halo of Karini cubed or equipped) are still mandatory in T16 speed farming. Consider altering the
Storm Armor rune to
Scramble for the additional movement speed proc.
- The vast majority of the passive selection from GR progression retains its
value in T16 farming for keys.
Power Hungry (distance-based multiplicative damage increase) is still a great addition as you try to burst down enemies with haste.
Galvanizing Ward will safeguard your
Squirt's Necklace damage buff with a massive shield.
Illusionist brings tons of additional mobility. Depending on how you feel about your Arcane Power maintenance, you can either stick with the staple
Elemental Exposure for a little extra damage on top, or supplement your AP regeneration with
Astral Presence.
Adapting Gear
The vast majority of gear choices will remain intact from the GR progression
setup. This is still a Legacy of Dreams build, so you run legendary items
instead of set pieces and obtain the necessary damage amplification and
reduction associated with the traditional 6-piece sets. This will cost a
legendary gem slot, but will net you all the jewelry slots for powerful jewelry
options. Similarly to the GR setup, you should wear a
Squirt's Necklace
for its massive damage boost; its "damage taken increased" downside is negated
by your various shields. For rings, wear a Cold damage
Stone of Jordan
for the elemental and elite damage boost, and pair it with your better rolled
ring between
Halo of Karini and
Rechel's Ring of Larceny. The former
is a well-known defensive staple that massively reduces incoming damage from
simple
Storm Armor procs.
Rechel's Ring of Larceny is a utility
inclusion that greatly boosts your movement speed after you fear an enemy, with
a solid Fear on Hit chance included as a guaranteed Secondary stat roll on the
ring itself.
LoD Frozen Orb armor pieces for speed farming can be roughly divided into the following categories:
- Damage amplification items. You will still be wearing both
Frostburn (elemental damage increase and crowd control value), and Cold damage
Blackthorne's Jousting Mail (strictly for the elemental damage increase; it should be your only set item, not forming any set bonuses).
- Resource items. The Act III bounty cache-specific
Pride's Fall is still massively valuable to the build with its Resource Cost Reduction bonuses in T16 keyfarm.
The Shame of Delsere on the other hand can be dropped, as you make up its resource restoration bonuses with passive effects from your skills. In its stead, use your better roll between
Goldwrap (practical invulnerability with the combo of
Boon of the Hoarder in your sockets and an
Avarice Band worn by your follower) and
Krelm's Buff Belt (movement speed increase), and Cube the weaker roll.
- Protective items. The damage reduction of
Aquila Cuirass and the proc-based cheat death of
Pauldrons of the Skeleton King are just as valuable as they are in GR progression.
Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer can be dropped in favor of the environment destruction-based speed boosts of
Warzechian Armguards.
- Utility items. You will be dropping the excessive protection of the
Stone Gauntlets from the GR progression setup, so wearing
Ice Climbers to counter their immobilization negative effect will not be necessary. In their stead, wear
Illusory Boots; these Act II bounty cache-specific legendary boots will allow you to move unhindered through enemies, enhancing your ability to position for optimal
Frozen Orbs.
Similarly to the Greater Rift solo progression setup, your weapon and
offhand need to stay on the Arcane Orb-dedicated legendaries
Unstable Scepter and
Triumvirate.
Slot | Pieces | Stat Priority |
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Head |
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Shoulders |
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Torso |
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Wrists |
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Hands |
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Waist |
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Legs |
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Feet |
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Amulet |
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Ring #1 |
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Ring #2 |
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Weapon |
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Off-hand |
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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.
Adapting Gems
Most of your legendary gem selection from GR progression retains its value in
T16 Nephalem Rift speed farming. Legacy of Dreams forms the basis of
damage reduction and damage multiplication in the build, while
Zei's Stone of Vengeance still brings excellent damage multiplication value
to the build. While certainly not weak, you should consider dropping
Bane of the Trapped in order not to overkill on damage, and replace it with
Boon of the Hoarder instead. Paired with a worn or cubed
Goldwrap,
and an
Avarice Band worn by your follower in solo play (or yourself in
groups), this legendary gem increases your movement speed and provides
near-infinite Toughness through its interaction with the aforementioned
items.
Slot | Gems |
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Jewelry | |
Helm |
|
Torso and Pants |
|
Weapon |
For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.
Adapting Kanai's Cube
In the limited challenges of T16 keyfarm, one legendary weapon damage
multiplier should be enough; thus, we advise you to stick to an equipped
Unstable Scepter and replace
Wizardspike in the Cube with an
Aether Walker. This legendary wand turns your
Teleport from
a cooldown to a spender, and allows for near limitless mobility.
When you solo T16s for keystones, no other source of damage mitigation will
be quite as effective as the triumvirate of Boon of the Hoarder,
Avarice Band (worn by the follower and emanated), and
Goldwrap.
Another T16 rule is that mobility is king, and
Krelm's Buff Belt is an
excellent source of additional movement speed that is synergistic with this
long-range, kiting-based build. As mentioned above, wear your stronger roll of
the two belts, and extract the other in the armor Cube slot.
Your jewelry Cube slot will still be occupied by your worse rolled item
between Halo of Karini and
Rechel's Ring of Larceny.
Stone of Jordan is a waste to cube, since you lose the elemental and elite
damage bonuses of the item — they are innate rolls but are not part of the
legendary power, and are thus not extracted in the Cube.
Follower
The recommended follower for this build during T16 key farming is the
Enchantress, due to her cooldown reduction bonus (cutting down
Teleport downtime) and elemental damage increase. Note that this
requires that you run
Hand of the Prophet and optimize her
survivability, as per our guide.
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.
Legendary Potion
The preferred potions for this build are Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid
(allowing you to break down Waller affixes that impede
Frozen Orb DPS),
Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered (giving you a brief window of CC
immunity to counter your lack of CC-breaking or immunity skills), or
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.
Changelog
- 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 06 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 30 Oct. 2021: Guide added.
More Wizard Guides
Builds from Other Classes
Farming Guides
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.
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