The Tal Rasha's Elements Set is probably the most iconic Wizard set in the Diablo franchise, originating from Diablo II where it was the Sorceress set. Over the years, Tal Rasha's Elements dictated the META multiple times. First in Season 3 with Mammoth Hydra using Pain Enhancer to get an obscene amount of Flame Blades stacks, uncapped back then. It returned in Season 6 with Vyr's Amazing Arcana (4) Bonus during the glory days of the Archon Twister zET META.
For the longest time, Tal Rasha has been played with Energy Twister and Arcane Orb Frozen Orb. Season 27 finally brought this set back into the spotlight for Wizard players, with a rework based around Meteors and two new items, The Smoldering Core and Mempo of Twilight, to back it up.
It’s quick, impactful and the explosions are very satisfying when played correctly. Very few builds incorporate the fantasy of a spell-slinging Wizard as well as this one. However, the LoD "Bazooka" is more convenient since it frees up skill slots and allows for the craziest interactions. During Season 29, Star Pact variants were under steroids due to the Paragon Cap with special distribution rules, allowing for +100 Arcane Power and 200% Area Damage! Unfortunately, Tal'Rasha's Elements got a huge nerf with Season 30, making the set hardly competitive against other Meteor builds.
This is an Area Damage (AD) build, since Meteors, even when coming from Tal Rasha's Elements (2) Bonus, can proc it. The whole playstyle revolves around the precise use of Teleport and a specific skill choice to play around Tal Rasha's Elements Bonuses as much as possible, in order to wreak havoc onto the battlefield. This guide will show you the way to become a formidable Meteor Wizard!
Iconic Meteor ✔ Active Playstyle ✔ Fun and Satisfying ✔ Easy to Get Starter Gear ✔
❌ Squishy ❌ Slightly Clunky ❌ Lack of Gear & Skill Options ❌ Vulnerable to Crowd Control
Core Setup
Core Item Build
Items
Tal Rasha's Elements provides us with a 4,000% separate global damage multiplier but requires us to juggle four abilities with four different elements Arcane, Cold, Lightning and Fire.
The Grand Vizier provides us a 400% separate damage multiplier and reduce the Meteor Arcane Power cost by 50%.
The Smoldering Core grants us a stacking damage multiplier on consecutive hits on targets, up to 150%. It also lures normal monsters towards Meteor Impacts.
Mempo of Twilight grants us a 400% damage multiplier on top of the Meteor Shower rune effect, the latest only affecting selfcast Meteors.
Nilfur's Boast gives another huge 600% damage multiplier and even up to 900% when you hit only 3 targets or less.
Halo of Karini is a core Wizard defensive item, providing us with a tremendous 80% damage reduction at the cost of using Storm Armor.
Convention of Elements is another separate damage multiplier, giving you triple damage during your Elementalcycle.
Ring of Royal Grandeur allows us to complement our Tal Rasha's ElementsSet with Captain Crimson's Trimmings and another Set.
Global Stat Priorities
You want to stack damage stats wherever possible, especially Critical Hit Chance and Damage, Area Damage as well as Elemental Damage and Meteor Damage. When playing Star Pact, fit Maximum Arcane Power and Resource Cost Reduction everywhere you can to scale Star Pact damage.
Regarding toughness, like most Wizard builds, in some setups we take advantage of Galvanizing Ward, Diamond Skin 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. But due to the very locked itemization and skill choice of Tal Rasha's Elements, only specific setups can benefit from these mechanics.
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
1. Do the Challenge Rift for the materials to cubeLegendary Powers. You can complete this once a week for additional resources and we always update the guide for you!
2. Gather the full Tal Rasha's Elements set. Each piece can be gambled from Kadala for Bloodshards. Do not salvage any duplicate pieces you find! Instead convert them to another part of the set with Recipe 4 in Kanai's Cube. If your last missing set piece is Tal Rasha's Allegiance - don't gamble for it! Instead gamble for a cheap and easy item, like the Pants, and once again convert it with Recipe 4. If you have extra materials you can use Recipe 3 to craft the remaining pieces, but this is expensive and not recommended for new players.
Staves to get The Smoldering Core and The Grand Vizier
Amulets to get Squirt's Necklace
Anything from the Gamble list in Step 3 that you haven't already acquired.
5. Do Bounties to acquire several important items for this build:
Act 1: Ring of Royal Grandeur
Act 4: Can drop any bounty item from any act
Bounty Turn In: Recipes for Captain Crimson's Trimmings, Aughild's Authority and Guardian's Jeopardy
6. At this point you can somewhat comfortably farm Nephalem or Speed Greater Rifts where you can find all the remaining items you need for different variants of the build. It's better to spend your materials improving your set pieces, getting ancient weapon etc.
7. Use Primordial Ashes in Kanai's Cube with the new Curiosity of Lorath Nahr recipe to obtain a free Crafted Primal Ancient. Since you can only equip one of them, choosing the right item to focus matters! Great candidates are Weapons, Offhands, Jewelry or any item with an important multiplier. With that in mind, we recommend getting one of the following items:
1. Elemental Damage 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Intelligence 4. Life per Hit 5. Vitality
Amulet
Tal Rasha's Allegiance Squirt's Necklace
1. Socket 2. Critical Hit Damage 3. Elemental Damage 4. Critical Hit Chance 5. Intelligence
Belt
Tal Rasha's Brace Guardian's Case (Crafted) The Shame of Delsere (Cubed)
1. Intelligence 2. Vitality 3. Life % 4. Armor 5. All Resistance
Potion
Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered
To avoid Crowd Control effects during your DPS phases
Gems
Bane of the Trapped is procced by default from our main damage skill and a very strong DPS choice, providing us with a 60% separate damage multiplier.
Zei's Stone of Vengeance adds another up to 80% multiplier depending on the distance of the target to the player character. Generally you will be positioned far away, easily maxing out the bonus on most targets.
Esoteric Alteration is a huge toughness buff, which can be used at lower paragon or eventually in some varints for survivability purposes.
The third slot will be taken up by different gems depending on your needs and activities. Boon of the Hoarder is strong in Nephalem Rifts, Bane of the Stricken is necessary for solo pushing in higher Greater Rifts and Bane of the Powerful is useful in Speed Greater Rifts.
Skills
Meteor is our main damage dealing ability.
Magic Weapon Deflection and Diamond Skin Prism are used in some setups for defensive purposes.
Magic Weapon Conduit is used push setups for Arcane Power generation without Arcane Power on Critical Hit (APoC).
Storm Armor is the activator for Halo of Karini. Without this buff you will be squashed like a fly, so make sure to keep it up. It also procs our LightningTal Rasha's ElementsBonuses.
Teleport Safe Passage is our mobility skill. In some variants, Calamity is our way to proc the Arcane stack of Tal Rasha's Elements.
Familiar Sparkflint is necessary to proc and maintain our FireTal Rasha's ElementsBonuses.
Black Hole Spellsteal is used in some setups to group and lock monsters while granting us a huge additive damage buff. It is also used to proc the ArcaneTal Rasha's ElementsBonuses. Absolute Zero is used for a massive Cold Damage buff with Comet setups.
Spectral Blade Ice Blades is necessary to proc and maintain our ColdTal Rasha's ElementsBonuses while also proccing Arcane Dynamo in the Star Pact solo variant.
Passives
Power Hungry grants us a 30% separate damage multiplier, one of the best damage passives in the game.
Elemental Exposure is a great passive for Tal Rasha's Elements builds, as you need abilities from the four different elements to get full benefit from the set anyway.
Galvanizing Ward is often used to generate shields and protect Squirt's Necklace.
Arcane Dynamo is a staple for some Star Pact builds, for its huge 60% separate damage multiplier.
Illusionist, Astral Presence, Unwavering Will or Blur can be used as fourth passive for slightly more mobility, damage or mitigation depending on your needs.
Paragon Points
Core
Offensive
Defensive
Utility
1. Movement Speed
1. Critical Hit Damage
1. Armor
1. Area Damage
2. Maximum Arcane Power1
2. Critical Hit Chance
2. Life %
2. Resource Cost Reduction
3. Intelligence
3. Cooldown Reduction
3. All Resistance
3. Life per Hit
4. Vitality2
4. Attack Speed
4. Life Regeneration
4. Pickup Radius
1 Take Maximum Arcane Power as it scales Star Pact damage. 2 Add a bit of Vitality if you feel too squishy (a total of 1,000,000 Life is recommended).
Follower
Patch 2.7.0 revamped the follower system giving all 3 hirelings new powers and the emanate system. The first thing you should do is read our complete follower guide and remember the key takeaways:
The emanation system allows followers to share certain legendary and set powers with you. The most important ones are: The Flavor of Time, Nemesis Bracers, Avarice Band, Sage’s Journey and Cain’s Destiny. Click the guide above for the full list.
Follower’s powers are based on their main stat (maxed at 25,000, but they have a 2.5x multiplier so you only need 10,000). This means we stack Intelligence on the Enchantress, Dexterity on the Scoundrel and Strength on the Templar.
Guardian's Jeopardy(3) Bonus works for followers by improving their inherent stat multiplier from x2.5 to x3.5, making it slightly easier to hit the 25,000 main stat threshold if needed.
Followers share 20% of their Experience, Magic and Gold Find stats with you.
Legendary gems do not work on followers, except Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard.
Cooldown Reduction does not work for any follower skill except the Templar’s Heal.
Followers never deal significant damage; you’re on your own to clear the content.
Select Follower
T16 Enchantress
T16 Enchantress
For T16 we recommend this Enchantress setup because she is the only follower that gives Cooldown Reduction, allowing you to spam your abilities more. Since this is T16 content, she’ll stay alive with Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard and use Hand of the Prophet to gain all skills. This will give us Cooldown Reduction, Elemental Damage, Reduced Damage from Ranged Attacks, Armor, Attack Speed, and a Cheat Death. Stat Priorities:Since we do not have the immortality focus, we need to stack survivability on our Enchantress.
Intelligence > Vitality > Life % > Armor > All Resistance > Life Per Hit > Attack Speed.
Key Items:
The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
Nemesis Bracers: For extra Elites, Death’s Breaths and In-geom procs.
Avarice Band: For the insane pickup radius.
Ring of Royal Grandeur: To complete our sets.
Gloves of Worship: For 10 Minute Shrine Buffs.
Sage’s Journey: For double Death’s Breaths.
Cain’s Destiny: For 25% more Greater Rift Keystones.
GR Pushing Templar
For Greater Rift pushing we recommend this Templar setup for the sustain from Heal, 10% increased damage from Onslaught, and the very powerful cheat death mechanic from Guardian. This is the only follower build that stacks Cooldown Reduction because it works with Heal. Since we take the immortality relic, we do not need any survivability stats. Stat Priorities:Since we have the immortality relic, we do not need to stack survivability on our Templar.
Strength > Cooldown Reduction > Attack Speed.
Key Items:
The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
Nemesis Bracers: For more progression from Elites.
Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
Unity: For 50% damage reduction if you're also wearing one.
Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
Leoric's Crown and Captain Crimson's Trimmings: For more Cooldown Reduction on Heal.
Gameplay
At the start of a run, buff yourself with Storm Armor to enable the 80% damage reduction from Halo of Karini. Make sure you keep this buff up at all times. In most situations it will not require much attention, but be careful when there are few enemies as you need to hit something that is at least 15 yards away from you. When fighting single target Rift Guardians especially, make sure to walk a few steps away regularly. The damage reduction can be tracked on your buff bar. Don't forget to re-apply this skill after 10 minutes when pushing.
Make sure to keep up your four Tal Rasha's Elements stacks.
When playing Comet:
Pull and gather monsters together with Teleport. Take care to not land on monsters because of Calamity stun.
Cast Diamond Skin Prism whenever needed to protect yourself.
When your Cold CoE cycle comes up, spam Comet on the monsters.
When playing Star Pact:
Pull and gather monsters together with Teleport.
A few seconds before your Arcane CoE rotation, group enemies at a safe distance before your nuke using Teleport and spam Star Pact to stack ground DoTs for Magic Weapon Conduit.
At the start of your Arcane CoE, throw a fully Arcane Power-charged Star Pact then spam more Star Pacts.
Hardcore
This build is relatively mobile but unfornately Tal Rasha's Elements does not provide us a decent damage reduction Bonus. You should use Unstable Anomaly at all times, but don't rely on it as it only protects you with a shield of 400% of your HP pool. If you lose the damage reduction from Halo of Karini, you will probably die. Make sure to be really careful with your defensive buffs uptime and you will be fine. Check out our dedicated Hardcore Survival Guide to learn more about how to succeed in this game mode!
Variants
Nephalem Rifts
GR Speeds
GR Solo Push
GR Group
Echoing Nightmare
Tal Meteor Solo T16
Concept In Nephalem Rifts we try to combine a great mixture of damage, toughness and utility. Ultimately the build plays similarly as in solo pushing, but is more fast-paced since we drop Arcane Dynamo and use Meteor Thunder Crash. We use Boon of the Hoarder in conjunction with Avarice Band (on your follower).
Gameplay Focus on Elite Packs and big pulls of monsters, keep your Tal Rasha's Elements stacks, spam Meteor on top of Elites if there is one, and nuke them before moving onto the next one with Teleport.
Setups In groups, swap Stone of Jordan, Warzechian Armguards & Pauldrons of the Skeleton King with Avarice Band, Nemesis Bracers & Homing Pads.
Select Build Version
Aether Walker Setup
Tal Meteor Speeds
Concept In Speed Greater Rifts we try to combine a great mixture of damage, toughness and utility. Ultimately the build plays similarly as in solo pushing, but is more fast-paced since we use Meteor Thunder Crash. Bane of the Stricken is not necessary, so we can take Bane of the Powerful instead. This setup can be used in both solo and group speeds. This setup is great at Lower Greater Rifts and is extremely mobile but requires a lot of Resource Cost Reduction to sustain Aether WalkerTeleport!
Gameplay Focus on Elite Packs and big pulls of monsters, keep your Tal Rasha's Elements stacks, Teleport on Elites and spam Meteor to nuke them before moving onto the next one. With this setup, Meteors from all elements should rain onto the battlefield!
Setups You can use Esoteric Alteration instead of Zei's Stone of Vengeance if you feel too squishy. This setup can also play with Comet for higher Greater Rift speeds. In that case, swap Energy Armor with Storm Armor in order to get the Lightning Tal'Rasha Stack.
Tal Meteor Speeds
Concept In Speed Greater Rifts we try to combine a great mixture of damage, toughness and utility. Ultimately the build plays similarly as in solo pushing, but is more fast-paced since we use Meteor Thunder Crash. Bane of the Stricken is not necessary, so we can take Bane of the Powerful instead. This setup can be used in both solo and group speeds. We use both Audacity and Power Hungry as well as Stone of Jordan to maximize damage output in all situations.
Gameplay Focus on Elite Packs and big pulls of monsters, keep your Tal Rasha's Elements and Orb of Infinite Depth stacks, Teleport on Elites and spam Meteor to nuke them before moving onto the next one. With this setup, Meteors from all elements should rain onto the battlefield!
Setups If you feel too slow, use Illusionist instead of Elemental Exposure, which cost you damage for a massive movement speed boost as long as you fight enemies. It is also possible to play Comet for higher Greater Rift speeds. In that case, swap Ice Armor with Storm Armor in order to get the Lightning Tal'Rasha Stack.
Select Build Version
Comet Setup
Tal Meteor Comet Solo Push
Concept We stack up as much damage as possible and take advantage of Teleport. The idea is to spam Comet during your Cold Convention of Elements cycle.
Gameplay Pull monsters all around using Teleport. As your Cold CoE cycle is coming up, use Black Hole Absolute Zero to lock monsters, make sure you got all your Tal Rasha stacks and start nuke with Comet.
Tal Rasha's Elements stacks should be maintained pretty smoothly with this build. For a step-by-step gameplay description on how you should sequence your skills, check out the "Gameplay" section above.
Setups At lower Paragon, you can swap Aughild's Authority (Bracers & Shoulders) and Squirt's Necklace with Guardian's Jeopardy (Bracers & Belt) for more damage and toughness. Removing Zei's Stone of Vengeance to take in Esoteric Alteration is a possibility to make you even tankier.
Tal Meteor Star Pact Solo Push
Concept We stack up as much damage as possible and take advantage of Teleport for mobility. The idea is to release Star Pacts on steroids during your Arcane Convention of Elements cycle.
Gameplay As your Arcane CoE cycle is coming up, spam Star Pacts for ground DoTs to stack The Smoldering Core and for Magic Weapon Conduit, then finish with a fully powered Star Pact as your Arcane cycle starts. After that spam Star Pact again.
Tal Rasha's Elements stacks should be maintained pretty smoothly with this build. For a step-by-step gameplay description on how you should sequence your skills, check out the "Gameplay" section above.
Setups If you feel too squishy, swap Elemental Exposure for Blur. If this is not enough, you can equip Esoteric Alteration instead of Zei's Stone of Vengeance. You'll lose a few tiers worth of damage but you will definitely be tanky enough.
Select Build Version
Comet Setup
Tal Meteor Comet Group
Concept We stack up as much damage as we can. We use Zei's Stone of Vengeance since we have a zBarb with us. We take Magic Weapon Conduit to generate Arcane Power. The idea is to spam Comet during your Cold Convention of Elements cycle. This build is decent at both Trash Killing and Boss Killing.
Gameplay Keeps distance from the pulls created by the zBarb to be safe and to benefit from Power Hungry and Zei's Stone of Vengeance. Follow the zBarb carefully. Stops for Cold CoE cycle, make sure to have Black Hole Absolute Zero active and spam Comet. Teleport into any Oculus Ring that spawns. Tal Rasha's Elements stacks should be maintained pretty smoothly with this build.
Setups If you feel too squishy, you can swap Astral Presence with Blur.
Tal Meteor Star Pact Group
Concept We stack up as much damage as we can. We use Zei's Stone of Vengeance since we have a zBarb with us. We take Magic Weapon Conduit to generate Arcane Power. The idea is to release as much Star Pacts on steroids as you can during your Arcane Convention of Elements cycle. This build is decent at both Trash Killing and Boss Killing.
Gameplay Keeps distance from the pulls created by the zBarb to be safe and to benefit from Power Hungry and Zei's Stone of Vengeance. Follow the zBarb carefully. Stops for Arcane CoE cycle and make sure to have Arcane Dynamo ready to cast Star Pact on the pull. Immediatly repeat afterwards. Teleport into any Oculus Ring that spawns. Tal Rasha's Elements stacks should be maintained pretty smoothly with this build.
Setups If you feel too squishy, you can swap Astral Presence with Blur.
Discard The Smoldering Core for Aether Walker and Tal Rasha's Unwavering Glare.
Go for Thunder Crash since these meteors have no landing delay, which blends perfectly with this game mode.
Swap Bane of the Stricken and Esoteric Alteration with Bane of the Powerful and Zei's Stone of Vengeance since we are fighting hordes of enemies.
Drop Convention of Elements for Stone of Jordan.
Reroll Area Damage to Average Damage as we do not need to make huge pulls.
Gameplay
Click Speed Pylon instantly to boost your mobility and dodge Green Meteors.
Around Wave 90, click Channeling Pylon and Power Pylon.
After Wave 100, use Conduit Pylon.
At Wave 122, stop attacking and run to the corner to let the timer run out.
Cast Storm Armor as soon as you enter. Then proc and maintain Tal Rasha's Elements stacks. Dominance and Galvanizing Ward will make sure you get permanent full benefit from Squirt's Necklace and Pride's Fall. Storm Armor Power of the Storm and Diamond Skin Prism are making sure your Meteor has almost no Arcane Power cost... Spam Thunder Crash everywhere... Profit!
Video Guide
Mechanics
Tal Rashas Elements
Tal Rashas Elements(2) Bonus grants you immunity to Arcane, Cold, Fire or Lightning when you hit an enemy with the according damage type while also dropping a Meteor. The same Meteor can't happen twice in a row and this effect has no internal cooldown (ICD).
Tal Rashas Elements(2) BonusMeteors benefit from all Meteor damage multipliers and can proc Area Damage. They do not benefit from the Meteor Shower rune effect from Mempo of Twilight.
Tal Rashas Elements(4) Bonus provides you with a 100% bonus to All Resistances for 8 seconds when attacking with Arcane, Cold, Fire or Lightning. Each attack provides a separate stack, for a total 400% bonus. This bonus is additive with other sources of increased All Resistances like War Cry Impunity.
Tal Rashas Elements(6) Bonus is a generic 4,000% damage multiplier which works in a very unique way. Each element (Arcane, Cold, Fire, Lightning) has its own unique stack with a 8 second duration. The 1,000% damage buff per stack is self-additive, for a total 4,000% separate damage multiplier.
Once you have 4 stacks, refreshing any stack will additionally add 2 seconds to the duration of the three other stacks. This means by alternating two abilities of a different element (after hitting 4 stacks) you'll be able to continuously refresh the set buff.
Meteor Star Pact
Star Pact have a 740% base Weapon Damage value and consume all remaining resource after the initial skill cost to add Weapon Damage to the base value.
This means the base damage of 740% Weapon Damage can be increased to up to a total of 4080% with a perfect 167 maximum Arcane Power and a Channeling Pylon.
Resource Cost Reduction only applies to the base cost of the skill, meaning that a 8% RCR roll (e.g. on your Shoulders) will add ~3 more Arcane Power to be consumed for a Star Pact cast. This adds 60% weapon damage or ~1.5% overall damage to the impact.
The Smoldering Core
Each hit from Meteor on an enemy applies a debuff granting you a 50% separate damage multiplier, up to 3 stacks.
Meteors from Tal Rasha's Elements(2) Bonus and Mempo of TwilightMeteor Shower effect are stacking the effect.
This effect is a debuff on monsters, meaning another Wizard with The Smoldering Core equipped can stack the effect for other Wizards in the party but one has to equip it to benefit from the damage multiplier.
The debuff stacks add up as one combined 150% separate damage multiplier.
The debuff stacks have a duration of 5 seconds. All stacks have their duration refreshed on hit.
The ground DoT effect of Meteor does not contribute to stacks.
The lure effect means enemies are taunted by your MeteorImpacts and run towards them.
Elemental Exposure
Each stack is a debuff for one of the following elements: Arcane, Cold, Fire or Lightning.
Each stack is unique and refreshes its own duration when reapplied.
Any ability with a proc coefficient greater than zero applies a stack of its respective element. This inherently means that only selfcasted abilities grant stacks.
The elemental range on the Weapon applies its respective stack with all abilities if the elemental range is of the type: Arcane, Cold, Fire or Lightning.
The 5% damage from each stack is additive to each other adding up to a total of 20% separate damage multiplier.
Summary
Put together the core items and acquire the full Tal Rasha's Elements set.
Keep up your Storm Armor for Halo of Karini buff at all times.
Don't forget to use your abilities to keep up your four Tal Rasha's Elements stacks.
Play around the Convention of Elements cycle to maximize your damage.
I hope you enjoyed this guide! Meteor is one of the core Wizard skills, and Tal Rashas Elements the most iconic Wizard set in Diablo. It can be very fun and rewarding setting up the correct pulls and destroying them with Rains of Meteors. Good luck!
