Vyr Archon Wizard BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Video Guide
  • 3. Quick Reference
    • 3.1. Skill Setup
  • 4. Builds
    • 4.1. Gear Setup
    • 4.2. Legendary Gems
    • 4.3. Kanai's Cube
  • 5. Role in the Current Meta
  • 6. Reading Further
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Skills and Runes
  • 1. Rotation
  • 2. Skills, Runes and Passives
• ×Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points
  • 1. Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives
  • 2. Paragon Points
  • 3. Gems
  • 4. Kanai's Cube
  • 5. Follower
• +Speed Farming Variation
  • 1. Speed Farming
  • 2. Adapting Skills
  • 3. Adapting Gear
  • 4. Adapting Gemming
  • 5. Adapting Kanai's Cube

General Information

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 and Season 11.

The other pages of our Vyr Archon Wizard guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

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 offense (with the Endless Walk set) and defense (with Halo of Arlyse). Rolls-wise, this Archon-centric playstyle takes good advantage of Cooldown Reduction 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 the traditional Intelligence, Crit Chance and Crit Damage recommendations.

You will adjust jewelry and bracers according to the content you clear — a defensive setup for Greater Rifts and a glass cannon variation for speed farming.

The scaling difficulty of Greater Rifts forces you to split between offense and defense in the jewelry slots. One of the 2.4 reworks, the Endless Walk set — The Compass Rose ring and The Traveler's Pledge amulet — adds a unique mechanic that slowly increases your damage by up to a 100% if you remain stationary, and drains it away and increases your damage reduction while moving. This mimics the Archon playstyle, alternating long distance movement to favorable monster density with periods of stationary Arcane Blast and Arcane Strike spam.

A socketed Halo of Arlyse will occupy the second ring slot. Halo of Arlyse will multiply the effectiveness of your Ice Armor mitigation, and provide additional crowd control. As long as the requirements of the ring are met, it will release a constant streak of Frost Novas, unhindered by internal cooldowns.

The Halo of Arlyse finds a synergistic companion in the Ancient Parthan Defenders, whose unique property triggers off Freeze effects as well (inexplicably missing from the item tooltip). With the chain triggers of Frost Nova from the ring, diving into massive fights turns from a suicide tactic into a survival tool through the numerous damage reduction procs of the bracer. An important playstyle tip to remember is that crowd control on the same monster diminishes with each successive application — so always seek out fresh enemies to reduce damage with.

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.

The mandatory weapon and offhand for the build are the Chantodo's Resolve set, Chantodo's Will and Chantodo's Force. Essential to the playstyle by providing the stacking Wave of Destruction effect, this set will be responsible for a 7000% weapon damage chunk in your DPS. Rolls-wise, aim for Cooldown Reduction and either % Damage Increase or Life per Hit on Chantodo's Will, and high damage range, Crit Chance and Arcane Power on Crit on Chantodo's Force.

Slot	Pieces	Stat Priority
Head	Vyr's Sightless Skull	Intelligence Socket Critical Hit Chance Vitality
Shoulders	Vyr's Proud Pauldrons	Intelligence Vitality Cooldown Reduction Life %
Torso	Vyr's Astonishing Aura	Intelligence 3 Sockets Vitality Reduced damage from Elites Armor
Wrists	Ancient Parthan Defenders	Intelligence Critical Hit Chance Elemental Damage Vitality Armor
Hands	Vyr's Grasping Gauntlets	Intelligence Critical Hit Chance Critical Hit Damage Cooldown Reduction Vitality
Waist	Fazula's Improbable Chain	Intelligence Vitality Armor Life %
Legs	Vyr's Fantastic Finery	Intelligence 2 Sockets Vitality Armor
Feet	Vyr's Swaggering Stance	Intelligence Vitality Armor All Resistance Movement Speed
Amulet	The Traveler's Pledge	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Elemental Damage Intelligence
Ring #1	The Compass Rose	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Cooldown Reduction Intelligence
Ring #2	Halo of Arlyse	Socket Critical Hit Damage Critical Hit Chance Cooldown Reduction Intelligence
Weapon	Chantodo's Will	High Damage Range Intelligence Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift) Cooldown Reduction Life per Hit % Weapon Damage
Off-hand	Chantodo's Force	High Damage Range Intelligence Cooldown Reduction Arcane Power on Crit Increased Damage Against Elites

2. Paragon Points

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

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 the constant Frost Nova triggers.

Bane of the Powerful has been reworked into a multiplicative damage increase, further enticing you to focus on chaining and bursting down elite fights, at which the Archon Wizard excels in the first place. This is reinforced by the gem’s level 25 bonus now increasing AND reducing elite damage by 15%, making it a well-rounded choice for the Vyr setup.

Introduced in Season 4, Bane of the Stricken occupies the third and final jewelry socket during Greater Rift progression. Building up your damage multiplicatively in prolonged fights and with 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. The Archon Wizard is not an exception, and Bane of the Stricken is considered a great addition to the setup.

Slot	Gems
Jewelry	Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Powerful
Helm	Flawless Royal Diamond (Cooldown Reduction)
Torso and Pants	Flawless Royal Topaz (Damage and All Resistance)
Weapon	Flawless Royal Emerald

4. Kanai's Cube

Stored in the weapon Cube slot, The Furnace provides 50% additional elite damage — which speeds up GR clear times greatly, as Champion and Rift Guardian fights are the usual 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 reset your damage form.

Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac is another key item to cube, as this jewelry slot will enable the lightning-fast recharge of your Archon. Benefiting greatly from the attack speed increase of the Archon stacks, it allows for re-entry into your damage form long before The Swami-sustained stacks expire, leading to stack overlapping.

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.

About the Author

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.