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 2.7.3 and Season 26.
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 up to 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. Seek the highest possible number of stacks in the legendary
property as a priority for the slot.
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.
Gear-wise, there is a shift you need to make in your jewelry. First off, this
timing-sensitive variation drops Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac as it needs to
sync its important cooldowns very precisely. In its place, you will be using the
Endless Walk set,
The Traveler's Pledge amulet and
The Compass Rose
ring. CoE is obviously retained in the build, while
Squirt's Necklace
moves to the Cube.
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 close to all the
gear pieces that are able to roll it (Shoulders, Gloves, Weapon and Offhand, one
of your Rings) with the exception of the Amulet and the other Ring you wear. 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. Skip Area Damage on gear, since your main
source of damage (the Waves of Destruction) do not proc it.
For Defense stats, aim for a life pool of about 600-700k; 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 vary according to your character progression
and build variation. Early on in character progression, when you are still trying
to attain the correct gear and rolls, it should be taken by
Gogok of Swiftness, whose Increased Attack Speed, Cooldown Reduction, and
scaling Dodge bonuses all bring massive value to the build. This also applies to
the restrictively Cooldown-reliant Double Element Variation, which also needs
all the CDR you can get. If you stick to the standard Cold build and have
perfected your gear according to the table above, you should socket
Zei's Stone of Vengeance in this slot. This gem provides a multiplicative
damage increase and contrary to its description, provides even the baseline
bonus at 0 yards, instead of the listed 10-yard requirement.
When it comes to gear gems, you will start out progression by slotting the
highest available level of Topazes in the chest and pants sockets. Ideally, these
will all be Flawless Royal Topaz as soon as possible. As you grow in
Paragon (bulking up Intelligence in the Core section) and aim for higher tier and
more dangerous GRs, you will transition those gems into the defensive
Flawless Royal Ruby (Intelligence-based classes such as the Wizard are
naturally high in Resistances, so their protection scales better with improving
Armor instead). There is no specific breakpoint where you do that; the rule of
thumb is to make the change as soon as you feel the lack of toughness impede
your progress. Since this is a Cooldown-intensive build, we recommend a
Flawless Royal Diamond in the helm. In your weapon, use
Flawless Royal Emerald for the Crit Damage boost.
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. In the Double Element Variation, this slot should be taken by
Orb of Infinite Depth instead; due to the use of
Explosive Blast in
that variant, you can take advantage of the substantial defensive and offensive
increase from this item.
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.
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. If you are using the Double Element
variation, this slot should be taken by
Squirt's Necklace; while its place
in the worn jewelry will be taken by the Endless Walk set, you cannot afford to
lose out on its massive damage multiplier, thus it ends up in the Cube.
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.
Follower
The recommended follower for this build during solo GR progression is the Enchantress, due to her cooldown reduction- and increased attack speed bonuses, both of which are helpful to the needs of an attack speed- and CDR-heavy build such as this one.
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.
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.
Changelog
- 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 06 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 14 Sep. 2021: Enriched the guide with additional information.
- 22 Jul. 2021: No changes necessary for Season 24.
- 02 Apr. 2021: Adjusted gear recommendations, added follower information.
- 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
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.
- Diablo 3 Celebrates 10 Years Today
- Diablo Immortal: Realm of Damnation Official Zone Preview
- Arclight Rumble Will Not Have Loot Boxes or NFTs
- Warcraft Arclight Rumble Minimum Specs, Possible 2022 Release, and No PC Port
- Warcraft Arclight Rumble Gameplay Videos
- Battle.net Balance Can Be Used for Purchases in Diablo Immortal
- Blizzard on Making Diablo Immortal for PC
- Diablo Immortal Launch Date and PC Open Beta