Vyr Archon Wizard BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points
Below, we detail the items and gems that you should use for your Vyr Archon Wizard in Diablo 3 and why. We also list your paragon points and Kanai's Cube items. Updated for patch 2.6.10 and Season 22.
Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives
The build incorporates the complete
Vyr's Amazing Arcana set bonuses,
taking all six available pieces and leaving the jewelry to balance defense (with
Halo of Karini) and offense (with
Squirt's Necklace and
Convention of Elements). Rolls-wise, this
Archon-centric playstyle
takes good advantage of Cooldown Reduction and Crit-based 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 defense in the jewelry slots. The timing-sensitive elemental boost of
Convention of Elements and the evasion-dependent bonuses of
Squirt's Necklace will serve to amplify your damage, while
Halo of Karini will layer you with a massive damage reduction bonus via
the
Storm Armor proc.
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 and
Galvanizing Ward shields.
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. It is important to note however, that Chantodo's Resolve only
receives benefits from elemental damage bonuses on gear if the element of the
selected Archon rune on your bar matches the element on gear, despite the Vyr
2-piece bonus granting you 'all the runes'.
The Chantodo 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.
Notes on maximizing Elemental Exposure and Double Element Variation
There are certain details in your gear rolls that you need to pay attention to if your goal is to maximize the damage of your Archon Wizard for the purposes of pushing the highest tiers of Greater Rifts.
First up, it is important to understand the mechanics of the passive
Elemental Exposure. This passive rewards you with a 5% additive damage
buff for each additional element that you use in the build, stacking up to 4
times. The passive is quite unique in that the weapon elemental damage roll
— the one that reads, for example, 1560-1940 Lightning (or Cold, or
Fire...) Damage — counts towards the requirements of the passive. In
practice, this means that a Double Element variation (as explained in the Skills
page) should aim for a Cold damage
Chantodo's Will.
As for the elemental damage rolls on your amulet and bracer in a Double Element variation, you need to have a maximized (20%) roll on your Lightning piece, and just-below-maximum (19%) on your Fire piece (i.e. a 20% Lightning amulet, and a 19% Fire bracer). Note that the Double Element variation is also extremely demanding on CDR, and you will need perfect rolls across all pieces outlined below to have a chance to pull it off. Consult the Skills page in order to learn how this variant affects your rotation.
Desired Stats, Breakpoints and Other Notes
In your Offense stats, there are not particular Cooldown Reduction or Attack
Speed breakpoints to chase. You simply need to obtain CDR on all the gear pieces
that are able to roll it (Shoulders, Gloves, both Rings, Weapon and Offhand) with
the exception of the Amulet (although it can be considered if you alter this slot
to The Flavor of Time). Due to the way the Vyr 4-piece bonus scales your
attack speed, additional rolls on gear are not necessary, as they will be
additive in nature; the only exception is
Chantodo's Will, where IAS is
desirable, since weapon attack speed rolls are multiplicative in nature.
For Defense stats, aim for a life pool of about 700k; dropping as much as you can for offense as you grow accustomed to the build. This build focuses on shield rather than sustain for survivability, so you can focus on general toughness stats (Vitality and Armor) across the respective pieces; you can add some Life per Hit as the 4th main stat on bracers, however.
All augmentations on gear should be done with your main stat, Intelligence.
Note that the stat suggestions below portray an ideally rolled item with stats listed in relative order of importance. The first four of them are main stats, and the latter two — secondary stats. If your item lacks and is unable to be rerolled into the primary stats outlined below, especially for a stat higher on the list, strongly consider its replacement. Perfecting Secondary stats is mostly a case of hyper-optimization and is not a case for discarding an item, except where noted.
Slot | Pieces | Stat Priority |
---|---|---|
Head |
|
|
Shoulders |
|
|
Torso |
|
|
Wrists |
|
|
Hands |
|
|
Waist |
|
|
Legs |
|
|
Feet |
|
|
Amulet |
|
|
Ring #1 |
|
|
Ring #2 |
|
|
Weapon |
|
|
Off-hand |
|
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.
Paragon Points
In the Core section, max out Movement Speed to the 25% cap. Normally this is done by dumping the first 50 Core Paragon points into Movement Speed, but if your boots have an imperfect roll with Movement Speed as a stat that you cannot replace, adjust the necessary point investment accordingly by simply subtracting your roll from the 25% max. After that, dump as much as you comfortably can into Intelligence, but feel free to invest into Vitality if you feel yourself lacking in toughness. Adding to Maximum Arcane Power should not be necessary.
In the Offense section, max out Cooldown Reduction, Crit Chance, Crit Damage and Attack Speed in that order. In Defense, prioritize Armor, then Life %, then All Resistance, and finish off with Life Regeneration. In Utility, build up Life on Hit and Resource Cost Reduction first, then finish off with Globe Radius and Area Damage.
Slot | Paragon Points |
---|---|
Core |
|
Offense |
|
Defense |
|
Utility |
|
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
Increased Attack Speed, Cooldown Reduction, and scaling Dodge bonuses all bring
massive value to the build.
Slot | Gems |
---|---|
Jewelry | |
Helm |
|
Torso and Pants |
|
Weapon |
For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.
Kanai's Cube
The Furnace is a preferred piece in the weapon Cube slot, with a simple
yet undeniable power — 50% increased damage against elites, assisting you
in taking down the hardest fights in Greater Rifts: Champions and Rift
Guardians.
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.
When pushing the upper limits of the build, it is recommended that you use
Squirt's Necklace in the Cube jewelry 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. If you are uncomfortable with such a glass cannon playstyle, you can use
Halo of Karini here, and drop
Explosive Blast from your setup for
Storm Armor.
In your jewelry slot, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac will bring you back
into Archon form quickly and reliably with the consistent procs of
Arcane Torrent
Static Discharge. Note that in Season 22, due to the
inclusion of the Cpt. Crimson set, you will have to use
Ring of Royal Grandeur here to maintain the set bonuses of both Vyr and
Crimson.
Again, due to the inclusion of the Cpt. Crimson set in Season 22, you will
have to move the vital Fazula's Improbable Chain power to the Cube in the
4th slot.
The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.
Legendary Potion
Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Tower, whose
Armor-increasing properties complement the naturally high All Resistances stat
of Wizards (due to Intelligence scaling resistances) for optimal
survivability.
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.
Changelog
- 16 Jan. 2021: Revised gear and Cube recommendations, introduced additional clarity for stat goals.
- 20 Nov. 2020: Added Cube recommendations for Season 22.
- 01 Jul. 2020: Corrected jewelry recommendations to fall in line with the proper tables. Added notes on double element version.
- 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 22 Nov. 2019: Expanded on stat, legendary gem and itemization choices with additional information.
- 23 Aug. 2019: Item recommendations are revised for Season 18.
- 17 May 2019: Guide was revised with additional recommendations for Season 17.
- 18 Jan. 2019: Added suggestions for the baseline Ring of Royal Grandeur for Seasonal characters.
- 26 Nov. 2017: Significant revision to itemization.
- 27 Oct. 2017: Revised gear to reflect its Patch 2.6.1 buffs.
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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