Vyr Archon Wizard BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points

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 (see this build's skills page for more information), 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 (and Galvanizing Ward, if you choose to take it) 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. 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.

Slot	Pieces	Stat Priority
Head	Vyr's Sightless Skull	Intelligence Socket Critical Hit Chance Vitality Crowd Control Reduction (Secondary Stat) Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders	Vyr's Proud Pauldrons	Intelligence Cooldown Reduction Vitality Life % Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat) Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso	Vyr's Astonishing Aura	Intelligence 3 Sockets Vitality Armor Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat) Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Wrists	Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer	Intelligence Critical Hit Chance Cold Damage Vitality or Life per Hit Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Hands	Vyr's Grasping Gauntlets	Intelligence (replaced by Attack Speed at High Paragons) Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Cooldown Reduction Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Waist	Fazula's Improbable Chain	Intelligence Vitality Armor Life % Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs	Vyr's Fantastic Finery	Intelligence 2 Sockets Vitality Armor Life per Kill (Secondary Stat) Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Feet	Vyr's Swaggering Stance	Intelligence Vitality Armor All Resistance Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat) Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet	Squirt's Necklace	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Cold Damage Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1	Halo of Karini	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Cooldown Reduction Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2	Convention of Elements (Best in Slot) Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac (Alternative)	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Cooldown Reduction Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon	Chantodo's Will	High Weapon Damage Intelligence Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift) Cooldown Reduction Increased Attack Speed Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Off-hand	Chantodo's Force	High Damage Range Intelligence Critical Hit Chance Cooldown Reduction 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.

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 Gold Find and Area Damage.

Slot	Paragon Points
Core	Movement Speed up to 25% cap Intelligence Vitality (up to personal preference) Maximum Arcane Power
Offense	Cooldown Reduction Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Attack Speed
Defense	Armor Life % All Resistance Life Regeneration
Utility	Life on Hit Resource Cost Reduction Gold Find Area Damage

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.

Earlier in progression, 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. Once you get used to handling the build and start pushing into the highest GR tiers however, you should consider the transition to Zei's Stone of Vengeance; despite the fact that the build fights in melee range, you always get at least the base 10 yard benefit from the gem — and that is a multiplier that scales with levels, which matters a lot as you try to squeeze every last drop of DPS into the build.

Slot	Gems
Jewelry	Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Stricken Gogok of Swiftness Zei's Stone of Vengeance (high GRs)
Helm	Flawless Royal Diamond (Cooldown Reduction)
Torso and Pants	Flawless Royal Topaz (Damage and All Resistance)
Weapon	Flawless Royal Emerald

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.

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.

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.

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.