Tal Frozen Orb Wizard Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation

The Tal 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 monster pulling capabilities of Ranslor's Folly. 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
Shock Pulse Piercing Orb Arcane Orb Frozen Orb 1 Energy Twister Gale Force 2 Magic Weapon Deflection 3 Teleport Calamity 4 Storm Armor Power of the Storm
Passive Skills
Illusionist Galvanizing Ward Power Hungry Dominance

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, using Energy Twister right on top of the nearest Elite pack to cluster enemies in one spot 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 Shock Pulse Piercing Orb, but this will come naturally through gameplay as you draw monster aggro prior to the Ranslor's Folly pull. Storm Armor Power of the Storm and Magic Weapon Deflection will keep you safe as you recklessly port around the rift in search of the next big fight; just do not let their 10-minute duration distract you from refreshing them in between runs.

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 Cold proc for Tal Rasha and your main damage dealer remains the namesake of the build: Arcane Orb, taken with strongest Frozen Orb rune.
• The Lightning proc for Tal Rasha is consistent throughout the variants: Shock Pulse Piercing Orb for its massive range and AoE aggroing potential. Its Primary Skill nature is also important for Triumvirate stacking.
• The Fire proc for Tal Rasha should come from Energy Twister Gale Force; while the rune is strictly taken for its element and its properties are lost on the build, the skill itself brings massive Crowd Control value through Ranslor's Folly.
• The Arcane proc for Tal Rasha comes from your mobility skill, Teleport due to the rune Calamity. In T16 keyfarm, it will be completely spammable due to the cubed Aether Walker.
• You will take two shields in the build: Storm Armor (combined with Halo of Karini) and Magic Weapon Deflection. Their powers combined will allow you to throw yourself from fight to fight with reckless abandon.
• Passive-wise, the distance-based damage multiplication of Power Hungry and mobility value of Illusionist remain core to the setup. Supplement them with the protective powers of Galvanizing Ward and Dominance, which safeguard the Squirt's Necklace bonuses.

The Tal Rasha's Elements set remains gloriously adaptable in T16 farming, and you should largely keep the same split between pieces as you do in Greater Rift speed farming: 5 pieces of Tal's, plus utility inclusions. It is recommended that you keep wearing the 2 pieces of the craftable Cpt. Crimson set ( Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle and Captain Crimson's Waders) when you farm on your own, since your follower can wear the craftable sets Sage's Journey (doubled Death's Breath drops) and Cain's Destiny (chance for extra Greater Rift Keystones) and emanate their power as if you were wearing them yourself. When you farm in groups however, drop the Cpt. Crimson's pieces for Sage's Ribbon and Sage's Passage, as you will have no follower and have to take care of the extra Death's Breath drops yourself. Ideally, you will also carry 2 pieces of Cain's set (i.e., Cain's Habit and Cain's Insight) in your inventory and right before the Rift Guardian kill, you will swap to them for the chance of additional GR keystone drops.

Utility slots also vary according to solo or group play, as you have to take care of certain bonuses that are usually relegated to the follower yourself when partying up. The bracer and shoulder slots that are occupied by Aughild pieces in the GR speedfarm variant are better taken by Ranslor's Folly (for supremely strong, pixel-tight pulling effect you can exert over trash mobs), and either the Act I bounty cache legendary Pauldrons of the Skeleton King (for the extra cheat death proc in solo play), or Homing Pads (for the safety during town portal when partying up). When partying up, you might want to be able to proc the extra elite spawn at Pylons yourself (usually done by the follower in solo play); this means either cubing Nemesis Bracers, or equipping them over Ranslor's to keep the Goldwrap toughness in the Cube. If you choose the latter, swap Energy Twister for Black Hole Blazar to maintain some form of Crowd Control in the build.

From the base GR progression setup, Halo of Karini maintains its massive defensive relevance, but the timing-based damage boost of Convention of Elements does not. Replace it with Ring of Royal Grandeur to maintain your full Tal Rasha and Cpt. Crimson set powers, allowing you to adapt either Squirt's Necklace (in solo) or Avarice Band (in groups) in the jewelry Cube slot.

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.

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.

Both Zei's Stone of Vengeance and Bane of the Trapped still bring excellent damage multiplication value to the build in T16 keyfarm. Within the limited challenges of T16 rifts, Bane of the Stricken should be replaced by Boon of the Hoarder. This gem increases your movement speed and provides near-infinite Toughness through its interaction with Avarice Band (either slotted in the Cube during group play, or worn by your follower in solo play), and the cubed Goldwrap.

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

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 in the armor slot of the Cube. In groups, you might want to take Nemesis Bracers in this slot to allow you to proc extra elites, but wanting to Goldwrap is understandable — if so, equip the Nemesis on yourself and swap Energy Twister for Black Hole Blazar.

Due to the neck slot occupation of the Tal Rasha amulet, you are forced to slot Squirt's Necklace in the Cube and equip the Ring of Royal Grandeur. Despite the tradeoff, this necklace more than makes up for it with a massive doubling of your damage; you will offset its "damage taken increased" drawback with a plethora of shields in your skill and passive selection.

The recommended follower for this build during T16 rift 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.

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.

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).