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Vyr-Chantodo Archon WoD Wizard Guide

Last Updated: January 10th 2024

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Introduction

Vyr-Chantodo Solo Cold Push
View all variants

Vyr's Amazing Arcana and Chantodo's Resolve are the core combo of the Vyr-Chantodo Wizard since their rework in Season 4 where this build was one of the best solo builds, using its insane Attack Speed to get unlimited Flame Blades stacks that were uncapped. Needless to say, every Wizard was craving for this elusive Hameliiiin! moment, as minions meant Flame Blades stacks.

"Easy to learn, hard to master."

Meanwhile it is one of the fastest, most reliable and agile Wizard builds out there, inherently tanky, specifically after its initial Archon stacks ramp-up, and therefore one of the best builds for intermediate players to push their limits on the leaderboards for the very first time, its overall playstyle and deep mechanics also allows enough room for exceptional players to shine. Vyr-Chantodo is a Wizard's definition of "easy to learn, hard to master".

Vyr-Chantodo comes in many variants and forms. This guide will cover a variant for farming Nephalem Rifts, Speed Greater Rifts as well as two for pushing Greater Rifts and provide all necessary information for you to build it and explain all its mechanics for you to master it!

Unfortunately, due to its dependency on Archon's long cooldown, it's not recommended to start a season as Vyr-Chantodo as long as you don't have a group carrying you through the early stages. Without the necessary CDR, you won't reset Archon in time, meaning you won't be able to kill Elites to gain materials in order to roll your items into more Cooldown Reduction: it's a vicious cycle. Overall these are the build's strengths and weaknesses:

Very Tanky ✔
Beginner Friendly ✔
Fast Paced Playstyle ✔
Rewards Excellent Gameplay ✔

❌ Hardcap DPS
Bad Season Starter
❌ Complicated Mechanics
❌ Heavy Cooldown Dependency

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Vyr-Chantodo is comprised of two sets: Vyr's Amazing Arcana and Chantodo's Resolve. Both Sets evolve around Archon, which is the reason they synergize very well with each other leading to an overall snowball effect with Archon stacks. Due to Archon's significant Cooldown your highest priority primary affix is Cooldown Reduction (CDR). Your target is to have CDR on all items except the Amulet and one Ring. Attack Speed (IAS) should only be rolled on Chantodo's Will; it is useless on all other Slots due to Vyr's Amazing Arcana (4) Bonus granting plenty of IAS.

Items
We are always equipping the entire Chantodo's Resolve Set as well as Vyr's Amazing Arcana Set. Depending on the variant we'll sometimes equip Ring of Royal Grandeur such that we can fit in a The Swami and in other variants will equip the 6th piece Vyr's Sightless Skull. Fazula's Improbable Chain is always equipped due to its incredible synergy with Vyr's Amazing Arcana granting up to 50 stacks upon jumping into Archon. For certain variants it is possible to cube Fazula's Improbable Chain.

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 100% damage buff when surrounded by a lot of monsters. For the Rank 3 power, take the additional damage per stack for a tremendous 150% 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 explosion to help us clear out large densities during the Rift. Hint: Make sure to get a Poison Damage Range on your follower's Weapon so it can stack the buff 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 Cold Damage to boost our character's power the furthest, although Critical Hit Chance is not too far behind. Note that the Elemental Swap setup requires you to take % Damage or Critical Hit Chance over Elemental Damage.
  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

While there is no specific overall Cooldown Reduction (CDR) value to reach, nor is there any specific Attack Speed Breakpoint to hit, you should aim to have to CDR on all items except the Amulet and one Ring.

Meanwhile Attack Speed is a huge contributor to your overall damage, you are only required to have an Attack Speed (IAS) roll on your Chantodo's Will, since that specific roll is multiplicative while other instances of Attack Speed are additive. Attack Speed is near useless on all other item slots. The reason is that Vyr's Amazing Arcana (4) Bonus grants you 1% Attack Speed per Archon stack, your stacks count being inflated every kill but also every hit with the (6) Bonus. You entirely omit Area Damage, since Wave of Destruction does not work with it.

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
Echoing Nightmare
Vyr-Chantodo Solo T16

Concept & Gameplay
Vyr-Chantodo is a decent Nephalem Rift farmer. Its strongest suit is likely its fast paced mobility with Teleport. For your very first Archon rotation you should stack up to 20 Chantodo's Resolve stacks with Explosive Blast and Arcane Torrent. For any rotation afterwards, 4-8 stacks should suffice once you are overlapping Archon stacks with The Swami.

Setups
Boon Of the Hoarder with Avarice Band and Goldwrap is commonly used recipe for making yourself incredibly tanky, especially in very early seasonal gameplay. Even though the shields from Magic Weapon Deflection are fairly small, due to this items' combination your toughness will skyrocket once you pickup gold. These small shields will scale with your current toughness meaning they will do an excellent job of protecting your Squirt's Necklace.

The weapon slot in cube, Messerschmidt's Reaver, is interchangeable with In-Geom. In-Geom will yield a lower cooldown on Teleport while Messerschmidt allows you to play the build with less overall CDR on gear. This choice here purely comes down to personal preference.

In groups, we swap Warzechian Armguards and Stone of Jordan to Nemesis Bracers and Avarice Band. Once we feel comfortable enough, we can rotate out Ring of Royal Grandeur for The Flavor of Time, losing Goldwrap in the process.

Vyr-Chantodo Solo Speeds

Concept & Gameplay
Vyr-Chantodo is a decent XP farmer in Solo Speeds. Its strongest suit is likely its fast paced movability with Teleport. For your very first Archon rotation you should stack up to 8-10 Chantodo's Resolve stacks with Explosive Blast and Arcane Torrent. Make sure to not focus any elites in your very first rotation; you must kill trash monsters to reset your Archon via Messerschmidt's Reaver. For any rotation afterwards you must go up to 20 Chantodo's Resolve stacks once you are overlapping Archon stacks with The Swami.

Both Explosive Blast and Arcane Torrent instances, that were casted out of Archon, are capable of granting you new Chantodo's Resolve stacks for your next rotation, since those are lingering around and hitting monsters even after your transformation into Archon. Thanks to our follower, we can spawn Elites on Pylon clicks to progress faster due to Nemesis Bracers, while also doubling Pylon duration via The Flavor of Time.

Setups
Since we are not using a Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, we won't have the capability to reset Archon on the Rift Guardian fast enough to overlap stacks with The Swami. The idea is to kill the Rift Guardian in exactly one Archon rotation; if you are incapable of doing so consistently you must either reduce the Greater Rift Level you are attempting to run or swap out Convention of Elements for Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac.

Another, bit more cut-throat, setup is to swap Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac for Halo of Karini and Messerschmidts Reaver for Echoing Fury; this mitigation for consistency trade-off makes the beginning of each rift significantly harder though.

Select Build Version

Zodiac Setup
Solo Cold Greater Rift Push

Concept & Gameplay
Upon entering a Greater Rift you immediately activate Storm Armor and Magic Weapon; you won't be able to survive long enough to build up to 20 Chantodo's Resolve stacks for your first rotation. In your first couple of rotations you want to focus on using left-click and Archon Blast (button 1) to build your Archon stacks as quickly as possible. During this phase you should refrain from using right-click since it builds up Archon stacks significantly slower than the melee punch; if at all you may use right-click to aggro monsters early on. This is due to the fact that Archon's Disintegration Wave (right-click) snapshots your character's Attack Speed upon entering Archon, any Attack Speed gained (or lost) during Archon will have no effect on its tickrate.

After leaving Archon you want to place a defensive Slow Time as well as Black Hole to ensure your safety. You don't want to spam these two abilities though since they take away Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac procs from your massive Archon cooldown. You want to re-enter Archon as soon as you hit 20 Chantodo's Resolve stacks.

For the Rift Guardian fight you should make sure to regularly range the boss enough to re-proc your Halo of Karini in time with Storm Armor. Additionally, you want to purely use Archon's melee punch to stack Bane of the Stricken on the Rift Guardian, since its Disintegration Wave (right-click) suffers from a penalty due to it being a channeling skill.

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 speed build with no further changes.

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.

The idea of the build revolves around entering and re-entering Archon as soon as possible to build up Archon stacks and overlap them with The Swami. You want to click Archon as soon as possible, make sure to activate Storm Armor and Magic Weapon first though, without caring too much for building up Chantodo's Resolve stacks. You are very squishy in your first rotation!

After your first rotation you should be fairly comfortable and tanky meaning it should be fairly easy to get up to 20 Chantodo's Resolve stacks without the feel of being threatened. Keep in mind to repeatedly press Button 1 while in Archon (600ms cooldown) due to it granting additional stacks via the Vyr's Amazing Arcana (6) Bonus as well as some decent shielding via Magic Weapon.

Video Guide

GR138 Vyr Chantodo Elemental Swap - Era 10 (S16)

Mechanics

In-Depth Explanation

Archon

Chantodo's Resolve

Summary

  • Vyr-Chantodo is a great all-rounder, but sucks at Bounties.
  • Make sure to always equip the correct rune on your Archon. A-L-W-A-Y-S!
  • haha Vyr-Chantodo go brrrrrrrr!

Cheers!

Credits

Thanks to LouLou for its insights on the setups!
Written by sVr & Chewingnom.

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