Vyr Archon Wizard BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points

1. Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives

The build incorporates the complete Vyr's Amazing Arcana set, taking all six available pieces and leaving the jewelry to balance defense (with the Endless Walk set) and offense (with Convention of Elements). Rolls-wise, this Archon-centric playstyle takes good advantage of Cooldown Reduction and Life on Hit affixes. Vyr's Sightless Skull, Vyr's Astonishing Aura, Vyr's Fantastic Finery and Vyr's Swaggering Stance can all be dedicated to Toughness, as Archon abilities are not possible skill damage rolls on gear. Cooldown Reduction should be the fourth primary alongside Toughness stats on the Vyr's Proud Pauldrons, and is also taken on Vyr's Grasping Gauntlets alongside an ideal trifecta of Crit Chance and Crit Damage.

The scaling difficulty of Greater Rifts forces you to split between offense and utility in the jewelry slots. Squirt's Necklace will occupy your amulet slot; rewarding Archon's evasive playstyle that controls and demolishes enemies while deftly evading their strikes, this legendary piece greatly amplifies both damage dealt and damage taken. Halo of Karini will take care of your defenses, providing a massive damage reduction bonus for the modest requirement of keeping your Storm Armor active. Ideally, you will finish off your jewelry with the timing-sensitive damage increase of Convention of Elements; earlier on in character progression, your worn jewelry slot can be temporarily dedicated to Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac due to its innate CDR and Crit Chance rolls.

Spending a lot of time in the crowd control-immune Archon form, you will find yourself at your weakest and most susceptible to deadly affixes in your regular form. To counterbalance the loss of survivability, you will do well to wear Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer, which doubles the effectiveness of your Deflection shield.

Fazula's Improbable Chain belt is tailored after Archon builds, with a BiS roll giving you 50 automatic Archon stacks when entering Archon form. Aiding you in your most vulnerable moments, this belt gets your damage and Toughness off the ground quicker, making it vital for the playstyle.

Your weapon and offhand slots will be occupied by Chantodo's Resolve set, Chantodo's Will and Chantodo's Force. This set combo received a massive buff in Patch 2.6.5, marking their return as the favored setup for the Vyr Archon. Mechanically, this set has a stacking bonus that, for every hit outside of Archon form, increases the Wave of Destruction effect that your character expels while in Archon form. The waves' damage scales with the various damage bonuses across your gear, including Attack Speed, up to the 5 APS equivalent. This damage scaling is dynamic in nature, so you need not trouble yourself with concerns about snapshotting mechanics; stacks can also be acquired post-activation of Archon if the skill was cast prior to that activation, so delays in re-entering the Archon form are also not necessary.

2. Paragon Points

3. Gems

Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is its own multiplier in your total damage calculation. You will benefit from it naturally, as Archon Wizards tend to fight in melee range to maximize the Wave of Destruction — Bane of the Trapped procs itself with the level 25 property, along with Wave of Destruction chilling effect, and the freezes from the Archon Slow Time.

Bane of the Stricken builds up your damage multiplicatively in prolonged fights and has a level 25 bonus specifically targeting Rift Guardians; this gem is designed to assist AoE heavy builds in their struggle against single target, high HP enemies. Vyr Archon Wizards are no exception.

Your final jewelry socket will be taken by Gogok of Swiftness, whose Incresaed Attack Speed, Cooldown Reduction, and scaling Dodge bonuses all bring massive value to the build.

4. Kanai's Cube

To improve your damage, the best choice for the weapon slot in the Cube is The Furnace — the strongest generic legendary bonus in the game. With its 50% additional elite damage affix, it speeds up clear times greatly, as Champion and Rift Guardian fights are the usual GR bottleneck.

The Swami is an essential addition to the Cube for the armor slot, as the power of this Wizard Hat allows you to maintain the Archon stack benefits for 20 seconds in your normal form. That window of opportunity allows you to survive and safely wait out the next Archon.

Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac is a powerful option for Archon Wizards to cube in the jewelry slot, easing the CDR management of this cooldown-centric build. Through the channeling powers of Arcane Torrent Static Discharge, this ring will bring you back into Archon form quickly and reliably.

5. Follower

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.

6. Changelog