LoD Star Pact Wizard Skills and Runes
On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing LoD Star Pact Wizard in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.6.7 and Season 19.
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
Skill Rotation
In this build, Archon will purely serve as a damage buff; none of your
DPS will come during its uptime, but you will use its base 50 stacks (coming from
the equipped
Fazula's Improbable Chain) to gain the damage multiplier after
the skill's 20-second duration is over (which is carried over, due to the worn
The Swami). You will optimally activate
Archon near the end of
your Fire
Convention of Elements rotation. If you are playing the group
version of this build, this is where you follow up with a
Black Hole cast,
ideally just after the start of the Lightning CoE rotation. Follow the rotation
up with quick successive casts of
Wave of Force, then a short channel of
Electrocute until 5 stacks of
Arcane Dynamo, then
Meteor
Star Pact. The delay of the
Meteor should be enough for you
to start channeling
Ray of Frost, and thus gaining your channeling-reliant
damage buffs. The
Star Pact impact should line up with the Arcane rotation
of CoE, resulting in a massive burst of damage. You can then continue the LoN
Star Pact rotation from
Black Hole onwards until your next
Archon reset.
Note that you can play an alternate (and stronger, albeit significantly more
complex and hard to pull off without automation) version of this build, which
slows down the Meteor casts but complicates the timing element between
Star Pact and
Archon. You can read up on sVr90's research on the
topic here.
Skills and Runes
Meteor is the focal point of the build, taken with its strongest burst
rune —
Star Pact. Its Arcane Power-dependency for damage
necessitates that you focus on extending your AP reserve through passives, gear
and Paragon points (see this build's gear page
for more information). The timing-sensitive self-casts of this skill (outlined
in the Rotation section) are extremely important, since the free casts of
Etched Sigil do not proc Area Damage — it is your manual use that
does.
Atypically for the skill, Archon is strictly taken for its base damage
multiplier, coming from the 50 stacks of the worn
Fazula's Improbable Chain
(resulting in a 400% damage bonus after
Archon expires). You will have a
20-second window duration of said buff, coming from the worn
The Swami.
Rune-wise, you will be taking
Pure Power simply for the reduction of the
skill's massive cooldown.
A trio of active skills are strictly taken as pre-buffs prior to the
Meteor
Star Pact landing.
Black Hole is fired off first, as the
skill will group up enemies and further increase your damage for each monster
affected from the rune
Spellsteal. It will be followed up immediately by
Wave of Force, since this will ensure you will hit the largest amount of
enemies possible with the rune
Arcane Attunement. As previously noted,
this is where you cast
Star Pact, but the delay in its landing allows you
to channel
Ray of Frost for all channeling-related buffs. Your
Ray of Frost rune will vary according to content —
Cold Blood
for soloing and
Sleet Storm for pushing. In simple terms,
Ray of Frost is taken due to its slower tick rate and its superior proc
coefficient for Arcane Power on Crit purposes.
Electrocute is an important part of the build, for multiple reasons.
First, as a Signature spell, it brings a proc for the damage multiplier of
Arcane Dynamo. Second, it brings an Arcane Power restoration powerhouse
to the build with the
Surge of Power rune, which ties into
Star Pact's demand for an (ideally full) AP reserve prior to casting, as
well as the resource requirements for
Aquila Cuirass.
As a final note for solo play, Black Hole will be dropped in favor of
Ice Armor
Crystallize for the necessary protection during solitary GR
pushing. It will be paired with a
Halo of Arlyse in your gear to cement
your defenses.
This concludes the overview of the Active Skills, now let us look through the Passives.
Passives
Arcane Dynamo fits into the goals of the build nicely, as
Electrocute
Surge of Power is necessary for Arcane Power build-up for
Star Pact anyway, and the passive's five-stack mechanic will feed extra
damage to your burst.
Audacity is a natural inclusion for the fighting style of a Meteor
Wizard, and even more so in groups — you will be casting your burst
rotation right in the thick of the fight, where you will get the most out of
this damage multiplier.
Astral Presence fuels both your Arcane Power reserve — in turn
resulting in a bigger
Star Pact burst — as well as your Arcane Power
regeneration, lowering the downtime between shots (as well as the
Aquila Cuirass downtime).
Evocation is simply taken to reduce your
Archon downtime with
its flat 20% cooldown reduction. If you opt for the version of this build without
Archon, simply exchange this passive for
Elemental Exposure.
Changelog
- 22 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
- 23 Aug. 2019: Skills were reviewed and approved for Season 18.
- 17 May 2019: Guide was revised with additional recommendations for Season 17.
- 10 Mar. 2019: 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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