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LoD Twister Wizard Guide

Last Updated: January 10th 2024

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Introduction

LoD Energy Twister Solo Push
View all variants

The last time Energy Twister was a force to be reckoned with was in Season 5 and Season 6, where Twisters dominated the leaderboards with Raging Storm cornerstacking and Archon Twister zET Meta.

However with Season 7 and Patch 2.4.2, Archon and The Swami stack instances were nerfed to be additive instead of multiplicative with each other. In addition to this nerf, Energy Twisters were changed to no longer stack in corners and instead despawn if they stop moving. As a result, only the Wicked Wind rune remains for Twisters to stand stationary.

After a couple years of absence, Twister Wizard was reborn with Season 22 bringing us buffed and even completely reworked Valthek's Rebuke, The Twisted Sword and Etched Sigil. However, as its dedicated Delseres Magnum Opus (DMO) Set comes with Slow Time restrictions, inherent clunkyness and underwhelming tankyness, Legacy of Dreams became the setup of choice as it is tankier, allows for more flexibility on top of enabling Reverse Archon and even Shi Mizu's Haori setups.

This is an Area Damage (AD) build, since selfcast Twisters can and will proc it. Yet, any Twister cast by Etched Sigil is not capable of doing so, which is why the sequence of how you cast your skills is of the utmost importance due to the merging mechanic granted by The Twisted Sword (see Mechanics). This guide will go over everything you need to know to Twister successfully!

Very Tanky ✔
Very High DPS ✔
Extremely Flavourful ✔
Rewards Good Gameplay

❌ Not Beginner Friendly
❌ Complicated Mechanics
❌ Vulnerable to Crowd Control
❌ Very Sensitive to Skill Sequence

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • The Twisted Sword provides us with a massive 750% separate damage multiplier. Energy Twister gains the Raging Storm rune and can now be merged up to 5 times. Keep in mind that this does not restrict you to five Twisters, it just means that the multiplier is maxed out at five.
  • Etched Sigil grants a 250% separate damage multiplier to our Twisters while proccing one every second when we channel.
  • Valtheks Rebuke is purely included for its 400% separate damage multiplier. Its passive effect that Twisters now follow a straight path is unfortunately circumvented by the merge from The Twisted Sword.
  • Squirts Necklace is a default inclusion for Wizards in any build due to their shield strength. Protecting our HP pool for a 100% global separate damage multiplier with continuously refreshing shields is a Wizard speciality.
  • Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer to double our Shields, to ensure we keep the Squirt's Necklace 100% damage multiplier.
  • Halo of Karini is a core Wizard defensive item, providing us with a tremendous 80% damage reduction at the cost of using Storm Armor.
  • Ranslors Folly provides us with one of the strongest pixelpulls in the game, which, however, does not work on elites. While in group the pull requires adaptations due to the Crowd Control Resistance added to the monsters, it is great in solo. The 300% multiplier for Energy Twister is already a reason by itself to incorporate them.
  • Stone Gauntlets provide an outrageous amount of mitigation and their negative effect can be fully negated by Ice Climbers.
  • Convention of Elements is another separate damage multiplier, giving you triple damage during your Arcane cycle.
  • Aquila Cuirass and Unity grant us two sources of 50% damage reduction.

Season 30 Soul Shards

Soul Shards are powerful socketable items that initially dropped during Season 25 but they are returning for Season 30! There are 4 available for Weapons based on the Lesser Evils, with another 3 for Helmets based on the Prime Evils. They drop at Rank 0 and be upgraded three times with the brand new Hellforge Embers to unlock additional powers, or be used in the Kanai's Cube as Augments. Here's how they progress:

  • Rank 0: Soul Shards begin with a unique static Legendary Power. Creates a Rank 50 Augment.
  • Rank 1: Gives all powers from the normal gems. Creates a Rank 75 Augment.
  • Rank 2: Grants one additional powerful stat. Creates a Rank 100 Augment.
  • Rank 3: Unlocks 1 of 3 bonus Legendary Powers unique to that Soul Shard. Creates a Rank 125 Augment.

Warning: Leoric's Crown and Broken Crown do not work with Soul Shards!

Read our Soul Shards Guide written by Chewingnom for full details on how they work. What you should prioritize on them for Solo Pushing is the following:

  1. The Correct Soul Shard & Rank 3 Power
    The best shards for Solo Pushing are:
    • Helmets: We want to use Shard of Hatred for the massive 50% damage buff when surrounded by a lot of monsters. For the Rank 3 power, take the additional damage per stack for a tremendous 100% damage buff in density!
    • Weapons: We want to use Essence of Anguish for the Movement Speed and Cooldown Reduction. For the Rank 3 power take the 50% increased Poison Damage, which actually applies to all damage done! Hint: Make sure to get a Poison Damage Range on your Weapon so it can proc the shard automatically.
  2. The Rank 2 Stat
    The stats that come from the second upgrade are not equal. Here's what we're looking for on them:
    • Helmets: We want either Main Stat for damage or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction to survive. Avoid Armor and All Resistance as their stat ranges are far too low compared to the other options.
    • Weapons: We want either % Damage or Arcane Damage to boost our character's power the furthest.
  3. The Stat Ranges on the Rank 1 and 2 Powers
    This is just icing on the cake because the ranges will not make or break your build. Still, look for the Soul Shards with the best stat ranges, especially on the offensive stats.

For the other game modes, other Soul Shards can be used. Check the Variants below to see what's used there.

What about extra Soul Shards? Either salvage them for gems, or upgrade and use them in Kanai's Cube for Augments.

Global Stat Priorities

You want to stack damage stats wherever possible, especially Critical Hit Chance and Damage, Area Damage as well as Arcane Damage and Energy Twister Damage. Regarding Attack Speed, this build is sensitive towards Breakpoints. The overall Attack Speed you have significantly impacts your overall damage output. Etched Sigil has an internal cooldown of 59 frames, meaning it can be procced once every 60 frames exactly when a tick from Arcane Torrent, Ray of Frost or Disintegrate occurs. If you were to play 11 FPA on the channeling ability of your choice, then Etched Sigil would spawn an Energy Twister every sixth tick (66 frames) even though it would technically be possible to do so every 60 frames.

Arcane Torrent Target Breakpoint for
Etched Sigil ICD Optimization

On the other hand, if you were to play 12 FPA on the channeling ability, you'd witness a Twister every fifth tick (60 frames). This would be a 9% DPS increase. Any divisor of 60 is a Breakpoint you can theoretically play on your channeling ability to maximize your output from Etched Sigil (2 FPA, 3 FPA, 4 FPA, 5 FPA, 6 FPA, 10 FPA, 12 FPA, 15 FPA). For the build at hand it's easiest to aim for 12 FPA on Arcane Torrent (for all runes except Arcane Mines), which is achieved by equipping a Weapon with 1.4 Attacks per Second (Wand or Sword base) with 10% Attack Speed from Paragon Points. No more Attack Speed is needed.

You want Area Damage on every piece except the Amulet. Cooldown Reduction is not needed as long as you don't aim to play the Reverse Archon Variant (see below). In regard to toughness, like most Wizard setups, we take advantage of Galvanizing Ward and Magic Weapon Deflection to generate Shields based on our HP pool. This means Vitality and Life % are very important as they double dip into Shields. This is the reason why you want to aim for a decent HP pool in Greater Rift Solo Push.

Crowd Control Reduction is an incredibly valuable secondary Affix to roll on both Rings, Amulet and Helmet as we are very sensitive to Hard Crowd Control effects and mitigating these will ease up our gameplay significantly. Make sure to get the Primary Affixes locked in before attempting to get CCR though.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Altar of Rites

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

Nephalem Rifts
GR Solo Speeds
GR Solo Push
GR Group Trash Killer
Echoing Nightmare
LoD Twister Cold Solo T16

Concept
Legacy of Dreams Energy Twister is an acceptable Torment farming build that is unfortunately not the easiest to gear into due to its significant dependency to Resource Cost Reduction (RCR). The build is fast paced thanks to Aether Walker with Cosmic Strand and Teleport but ultimately still gets outrun by the best Keyfarmer builds.

As usual, we are using Boon of the Hoarder with Goldwrap and Avarice Band to become invincible and allowing us to instantly vacuum the juicy Progression Orbs from Elites. Etched Sigil is entirely omitted in this setup since channeling is too slow in T16; instead we are purely reliant on selfcasting Energy Twister.

Gameplay
When entering the Nephalem Rift you first want to spam 5 Energy Twisters to gain your maximum multiplier from The Twisted Sword, elsewise you'll have a harsh time for the very first enemies.

Afterwards you simply rely on holding down Teleport and casting one or two Twisters every couple of seconds. You want to preferably Teleport on top of Elites and then selfcast one or two Twisters. Targeting Elites one screen away and then jumping on top of them is also a valuable strategy with the only downside being that you won't be able to benefit from Audacity (in which case Power Hungry would fit you better). You click Diamond Skin Prism immediately when it comes off cooldown.

Setups
The recommended version for Nephalem Rifts is the Cold setup, however a Fire setup with Cindercoat is also a possibility if you are willing to look out for the gear. In groups, you need to swap Stone of Jordan for Avarice Band, Warzechian Armguards for Nemesis Bracers as well as equipping The Flavor of Time and cubing Squirt's Necklace.

LoD Twister Cold Solo Speeds

Concept
Legacy of Dreams Energy Twister is one of the strongest Wizard builds out there for farming experience with Solo Speed Greater Rifts. We need Resource Cost Reduction which is mainly achieved by incorporating Leorics Crown with Flawless Royal Topaz. While it is possible to play with any rune, Mistral Breeze is the practical winner due its lower Arcane Power Cost, which leads to a better uptime of Aquila Cuirass, yielding better uptime of Squirts Necklace.

Gameplay
The gameplay is very relaxing, since you only have three active buttons: Energy Twister, which you only need to selfcast on the Rift Guardian and on tough Juggernaut Rare Elites, Arcane Torrent, which you tap once in a while to pull monsters with a selfcasted Twister, and Teleport, which is purely there for mobility. You simply teleport through and use those buttons accordingly based on the situation. Overall your average runtime is a bit longer due to the inherent setup time of Energy Twisters and the lack of Aether Walker, which can't be incorporated due to competitiveness of the Weapon slot. Hence, it's recommend to run slightly higher tiers while still clearing within 5 minutes.

Select Build Version

Standard Setup
LoD Twister Solo Push

Concept
The first setup here is the one described in the main sections of the guide, focusing around making large pulls, snapshotting Wave of Force Arcane Attunement for your first Energy Twister and melt everything on your Convention of Elements Arcane cycle.

Gameplay
To play the build optimally, you want to follow these steps for maximum DPS. The right sequencing is very important:

  1. Pull monsters to create density. Use Wave of Force Arcane Attunement with as many enemies as possible around you to snapshot its effect. Before your final cast, you can also use it repeatedly to stack up shields with Magic Weapon Deflection.
  2. Place a single Energy Twister to create a pixelpull from Ranslor's Folly.
  3. Cast 4-6 Energy Twisters on top of each other. If an Oculus Ring appears, Teleport into it.
  4. Channel Arcane Torrent until the enemies are gone, your parent Twister disappeared (6 seconds later), or your Convention of Elements Arcane cycle is over.
  5. Repeat at step 1.
LoD Twister Reverse Archon Group Trash Killer

Concept
Legacy of Dreams Energy Twister, built as a Reverse Archon iteration to gain stacks via Fazulas Improbable Chain and utilize these stacks out of Archon with The Swami, is a pretty solid Trashkiller for 4-Player setups. It's sadly not as strong as some other Trashkillers and also puts significant stress on the game servers, such that lagging is a common "feature" you'll witness when attempting to play this.

This variant utilizes Pain Enhancer (PE) to heavily influx its Attack Speed to lower the Energy Twister Breakpoint significantly, such that more Twisters are raging at the same time. You need to invest a bit into Cooldown Reduction, however, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac with PE proves to be very potent at resetting large cooldowns such as Archon.

Gameplay
This builds must be played in a fixed 32 second rotation, meaning it's continuously tied to your Convention of Elements (CoE).

  1. You click Archon at the start of CoE Cold. You can now run around freely for 20 seconds. Your team should prepare a good pixelpull for you. You drop out of Archon at the start of CoE Fire.
  2. You cast Wave of Force Arcane Attunement.
  3. You cast Energy Twister 5 times.
  4. You cast Wave of Force Arcane Attunement.
  5. You cast Energy Twister indefinitely.
  6. You switch to channeling Arcane Torrent 3 seconds into your CoE Lightning.
  7. Repeat at 1.
Echoing Nightmare Setup

Concept
For more information, check out our full Echoing Nightmare Guide and take a look at our Echoing Nightmare Build Tier List and our META post for the best builds and strategies! This build is decent for this game mode. Typically we utilize a Greater Rift pushing build with a few tweaks.

Changes

  • Swap Bane of the Stricken with Bane of the Powerful since we are fighting hordes of enemies.
  • Replace Wave of Force with Black Hole Spellsteal for smoother damage rotation.

Gameplay

  1. Click Speed Pylon instantly to boost your mobility and dodge Green Meteors.
  2. Around Wave 90, click Channeling Pylon and Power Pylon.
  3. After Wave 100, use Conduit Pylon.
  4. At Wave 122, stop attacking and run to the corner to let the timer run out.

Use Black Hole Spellsteal with as many enemies as possible around you to snapshot its effect. Cast 4-6 Energy Twisters on top of each other. If an Oculus Ring appears, Teleport into it. Channel Arcane Torrent until the enemies are gone, your parent Twister disappeared (6 seconds later), or your Convention of Elements Arcane cycle is over.

Video Guide

Mechanics

The Twisted Sword

Etched Sigil

Wizard Shields

Wave of Force Arcane Attunement

Ranslor’s Folly

Elemental Exposure

Energy Twister on Console Version

Summary

  • Put together the core items and level up the Legacy of Dreams gem.
  • Be careful of Etched Sigil stealing all your precious Area Damage.
  • One of the few builds that can actually pull off to play Shi Mizus Haori.
  • Shoutouts to Cratic for his work on PTR 2.6.10 and his Solo Speeds GR Twister Variant!

Cheers!

Credits

Thanks to Rob and Northwar for extensive PTR testing.
Thanks to LouLou for revising D3Planners and mechanical insights!
Written by sVr & Chewingnom with special help from wudijo.
Updated by Chewingnom.

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