Tal Meteor Wizard Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Jan 10, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 11 comments
1.

Nephalem Rift Speed Farming

The Tal Meteor Wizard can deal reasonably well with Nephalem Rift Speed Farming, mostly thanks to overwhelming damage potential offered by Meteor Meteor that allows you to include Aether Walker Aether Walker in the build, and versatility of the Tal Rasha set allowing for multiple utility legendaries. 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
Left Mouse Button Diamond Skin Icon Diamond Skin Prism Prism Right Mouse Button Meteor Icon Meteor Thunder Crash Thunder Crash 1 Explosive Blast Icon Explosive Blast Chain Reaction Chain Reaction 2 Familiar Icon Familiar Arcanot Arcanot 3 Teleport Icon Teleport Wormhole Wormhole 4 Ice Armor Icon Ice Armor Frozen Storm Frozen Storm
Passive Skills
2.

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 Teleport Teleports on top of enemies and their subsequent decimation with Meteor Meteors, made immediate with the rune Thunder Crash Thunder Crash. Diamond Skin Diamond Skin Prism Prism and Explosive Blast Explosive Blast Chain Reaction Chain Reaction are cast on cooldown throughout the rift; the former to cut down Arcane Power costs, and the latter — to trigger the Fire element of the Tal Rasha set bonus. Ice Armor Ice Armor Frozen Storm Frozen Storm, Familiar Familiar Arcanot Arcanot and Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection will keep your resources and survivability stable 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.

3.

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.

  • The Lightning proc for Tal Rasha and your main source of damage comes in the form of Meteor Meteor Thunder Crash Thunder Crash. The rune's immediate effect fits right in with the blistering pace of standard Rifts.
  • The Cold proc for Tal Rasha comes from the persistent AoE effect of Ice Armor Ice Armor Frozen Storm Frozen Storm.
  • The Fire proc for Tal Rasha should come from Explosive Blast Explosive Blast Chain Reaction Chain Reaction; the multiple, staggered detonations of this rune will ensure at least one hit lands on an enemy as you maneuver in a fight, keeping up the necessary elemental bonus.
  • The Arcane proc for Tal Rasha comes from Familiar Familiar Arcanot Arcanot; a utility-driven choice, which also nets you the lucrative 4.5 Arcane Power regeneration per second. You will further strengthen your resource management by taking Diamond Skin Diamond Skin Prism Prism, and casting it on cooldown.
  • Of course, during speed farming you will need to include a mobility skill; for Wizards, this means Teleport Teleport. Take the Wormhole Wormhole rune, which gives you an extra use of the skill within 3 seconds of the first cast. In T16 keyfarm, Teleport Teleport will be completely spammable due to the cubed Aether Walker Aether Walker.
  • Passive-wise, the proximity-based damage multiplication of Audacity Audacity, the element-based damage multiplication of Elemental Exposure Elemental Exposure, and mobility value of Illusionist Illusionist remain core to the setup. Supplement them with Unstable Anomaly Unstable Anomaly; this cheat death failsafe lets you move and loot with no regards for your safety, and to pull some truly reckless moves — like staying inside Molten explosions to loot, etc.
4.

Adapting Gear

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 wear speedfarm-oriented legendaries like Goldwrap Goldwrap, Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards and Pauldrons of the Skeleton King Pauldrons of the Skeleton King 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, consider dropping Goldwrap Goldwrap and Nilfur's Boast Nilfur's Boast from the standard setup for Sage's Ribbon Sage's Ribbon plus Sage's Passage 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 Cain's Habit and Cain's Insight 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 Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards (for environment destruction-based movement speed increases), and either the Act I bounty cache legendary Pauldrons of the Skeleton King Pauldrons of the Skeleton King (for the extra cheat death proc in solo play), or Homing Pads 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 Nemesis Bracers, or equipping them over Warzechian's to keep the Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan resource bonuses in the Cube.

Jewelry-wise, you should swap progression-oriented rings like Halo of Karini Halo of Karini and Convention of Elements Convention of Elements for more well-rounded bonuses. Our base recommendation is to wear a Lightning damage Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan and a Unity Unity (paired with another Unity Unity on your follower, plus an immortality item like Enchanting Favor Enchanting Favor, this ring reduces incoming damage in half). In groups, use Avarice Band Avarice Band instead of Unity Unity.

Unlike Greater Rift-oriented setups, your weapon needs to be altered to Aether Walker Aether Walker in T16 farm. This legendary wand turns your Teleport Teleport from a cooldown to a spender, and allows for near limitless mobility.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Intelligence
  2. Socket
  3. Meteor % Damage
  4. Attack Speed
  5. Crowd Control Duration Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Intelligence
  2. Area Damage
  3. Resource Cost Reduction
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Intelligence
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Elite Damage Reduction
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Lightning % Damage
  4. Vitality
  5. Reduced Damage Melee Attacks (Secondary stat)
Hands
  1. Intelligence (or Resource Cost Reduction at high Paragon)
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. Life %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Intelligence
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Intelligence
  2. Meteor % Damage
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Lightning % Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Area Damage
  5. Crowd Control Duration Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Area Damage
  5. Crowd Control Duration Reduction (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  3. Intelligence (or % Damage at high Paragons)
  4. Area Damage
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Off-hand
  1. High Damage Range
  2. Intelligence
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Meteor % Damage
  5. Area Damage
  6. Arcane Power on Crit

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.

4.1.

Altar of Rites

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).

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.

5.

Adapting Gems

Either Zei's Stone of Vengeance Zei's Stone of Vengeance or Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped can bring excellent damage multiplication value to the build in T16 keyfarm. Within the limited challenges of T16 keystone farming, Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken should be replaced by Bane of the Powerful Bane of the Powerful for a well-rounded damage increase and damage mitigation bonus, with a duration-based (but very generous and manageable) limitation. Lastly, Esoteric Alteration Esoteric Alteration from the GR progression build should be swapped for Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder. This gem increases your movement speed and provides near-infinite Toughness through its interaction with Avarice Band Avarice Band (either worn by you during group play, or worn by your follower in solo play), and the equipped Goldwrap Goldwrap.

5.1.

Season 30 Soul Shards

In Season 30, your helm and weapon sockets will be taken over by the supremely powerful Soul Shards. For this variant, we recommend the following:

  • HelmShard of Hatred with "Your movement speed is increased by 50%" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Intelligence or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction on its Rank 2 roll.
  • WeaponStain of Sin with "You gain an additional Rift Progress Orb when you kill an elite pack" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Lightning % Increase or Weapon Damage Increase on its Rank 2 roll.
Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

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

6.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

The Greater Rift staple The Grand Vizier The Grand Vizier moves from a worn item to a cubed power in T16 farm, freeing up a slot for Aether Walker Aether Walker mobility. Nevertheless, it should still be present in the build for its ubiquitous damage multiplication and resource cost reduction bonuses.

Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan increase resource generation and damage dealt while moving — and decrease them while stationary. In the breakneck pace of T16 farm, this legendary should always provide its positive powers as you relentlessly move forward.

In order to maintain the amalgamation of the Tal Rasha and Aughild sets, as well as a slew of synergistic legendary items, you need to keep the Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the jewelry slot of the Cube.

7.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during T16 speed farming is the Enchantress, due to her cooldown reduction bonus (cutting down Teleport Teleport downtime) and elemental damage increase. Note that this requires that you run Hand of the Prophet 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.

8.

Legendary Potion

The preferred potions for this build are Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid (allowing you to break down Waller affixes that impede Frozen Orb Frozen Orb DPS), Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered 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 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.

9.

Changelog

  • 10 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Guide added, as well as Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
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