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Wizard Class Overview

Last Updated: January 7th 2024

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Wizards are renegade spellcasters who use their bodies as vessels for arcane energy, forsaking the more careful path favored by other magic users. They manipulate all manner of forces to disintegrate, burn, and freeze their foes, and they can control time and light to teleport, create powerful illusions, and deflect incoming attacks.

Wizards grip wands and staves to focus their less potent magics, blasting at their enemies while gathering the energy or time necessary to destroy them in a dazzling hail of arcane might. With few exceptions, Wizard attacks consume Arcane Power. As living artillery, Wizards are well suited to rely on long-range destructive power with a great mobility while also being one of the tankiest classes in the game, and often fight in melee range.

Wizard in the Lore
  1. Masters of elements with a full collection of deadly spells.
  2. Use advantageous shielding mechanics to stay alive.
Wizard in the Game

Wizards are in a pretty good position with many competitive builds in push and efficient in both pushing and speed Greater and Nephalem Rift farming. Wizard builds have a wide array of skills to choose from with a lot of flavor.

In group play Wizards are a good fit for Trash or Rift Guardian Killer with Meteor builds. Similarly, their support build does not justify a spot in most cases. In XP farming groups the situation is pretty similar with Meteor being a decent choice while zWizard can take a spot in some very specific setups.

Lore

Magic-users hail from academies throughout Sanctuary – from Xiansai to Caldeum – bearing monikers like "sorcerer" and "mage," but those who would refer to themselves with the derogatory epithet "Wizard" are as similar to their fellow spellcasters as a lion is to a kitten. Wizards and sorcerers both wield the hidden mysteries of the arcane; there, the commonalities end.

Wizards are known for a number of qualities: not only rebelliousness and flair, but also disdain for the endless lessons and prattling about caution and safety that echo from academic schools of magic. Wizards’ superior attitudes seem to stem from their natural talent – their ability to wrestle the ambient force of magic into submission and direct it to their ends by will and instinct. Any accidents that might occur due to their lack of finesse are unfortunate… but that rarely stops Wizards from indulging in their unstable power.

If they can only master their double-edged gift and avoid destroying themselves, these upstart arcane prodigies may be able to finally reach the destiny that they see on the horizon.

Read the full story of the Wizard here

Resources

Maximum Arcane Power: 100

  • +25 from Paragon points
  • +42 from secondary rolls on gear
  • +20 from Astral Presence
  • +20 from Energy Armor Energy Tap
  • +9 from Stone of Jordan

Passive Regeneration: 10 per second

  • +4.5 from Familiar Arcanot
  • +2.5 from Astral Presence
  • +1.4 from Inspire

Active Generation:

  • +5 from Prodigy
  • Electrocute Surge of Power
  • Shock Pulse Power Affinity
  • Spectral Blade Siphoning Blade
  • +9-12 from The Shame of Delsere

Additional Arcane Power sources:

  • +12 from APoC rolls on gear
  • Energy Armor Absorption
  • Magic Weapon Conduit

Wizards use Arcane Power to cast their most powerful skills. Arcane Power regenerates at a pretty fast rate over time but Wizard spells consume a lot of it.

Most Wizard builds don't care about Arcane Power too much; they generally have Arcane Power on Critical Hit (APoC) to take care of it. This makes every critical strike dealt to an enemy generate Arcane Power calculated using the proc coefficient of the hit. Magic Weapon Conduit works similarly but on every hit rather than critical strike.

Equipment

Wizards are casters, however they can equip all kinds of Two-Handed Weapons besides Polearms. They generally equip One-Handed Swords or Wands alongside special Off-Hands named Sources. They can also equip Wizards Hats.

Wands

Wands

Wands are unique Wizard items that have the same base stats as regular One-Handed Weapons, but also can roll certain class-specific stats:

  • Secondary rolls
    • +10-14 Maximum Arcane Power



Sources

Sources

Wizard exclusive Off-Hands are Sources. They come with a big chunk of damage (up to 485-600 when Ancient) as an extra primary stat. They can also roll some class-specific stats:

  • Primary rolls
    • +3-4 Arcane Power on Critical Hit
    • +10-15% Damage to any Wizard Skill
  • Secondary rolls
    • +10-14 Maximum Arcane Power

Wizard Hats

Wizard Hats

Wizards also have a unique Armor piece, Wizard Hats. They are similar to normal Helmets with the addition of some class-specific stats:

  • Primary rolls
    • +3-4 Arcane Power on Critical Hit
  • Secondary rolls
    • +10-14 Maximum Arcane Power

Sets and Builds

Tal Rasha's Elements
Firebird's Finery
Delsere's Magnum Opus
Vyr's Amazing Arcana
The Typhon's Veil
No Six Piece Set

Tal Rasha's Elements

  • It grants you immunity to Arcane, Cold, Fire or Lightning when you damage an enemy with the according damage type while also dropping a Meteor. The same Meteor can't happen twice in a row and do not proc Area Damage.
  • It provides you with a 50% bonus to All Resistances for 8 seconds when attacking with Arcane, Cold, Fire or Lightning. Each attack provides a separate stack, for a total 200% bonus.
  • Once you have 4 stacks, refreshing any stack adds 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.
  • The 1,000% damage buff per stack is self-additive, for a total 4,000% separate damage multiplier (x41).

Tal Rasha's Elements is a very versatile Wizard set, as it provides bonus to all damage and thus can be used with any skill. It also has 3 special set pieces (Amulet, Belt and Source) which allows for the craziest gearing combinations. However, since its only bonus is a generic damage multiplier and the set comes with the worst drawback you can imagine (locking your skill choice to a skill of each element), Legacy of Dreams is generally stronger.

This build uses Tal Rasha's Elements in combination with Aughild's Authority as well as the supporting legendaries for Meteor : The Grand Vizier, The Smoldering Core, Mempo of Twilight and Nilfur's Boast. The build has great damage burst potential but is unfortunately relatively clunky due to Tal Rasha limitations.

This build uses Tal Rasha's Elements in combination with Captain Crimson's Trimmings and Aughild's Authority as well as the supporting legendaries for Frozen Orb : Unstable Scepter, Triumvirate and Wizardspike. The build is unfortunately quite weak when it comes to pushing Greater Rifts and not great for speedfarming.

This build uses Tal Rasha's Elements in combination with Captain Crimson's Trimmings and Aughild's Authority as well as Wand of Woh. The build is not strong but has a lot of flavor and is a decent solo farmer whether it's Nephalem Rifts or Bounties due to its good scaling with Cooldown Reduction and In-Geom.

Firebird's Finery

  • The Meteor that revives you from the Firebird's Finery (2) Bonus has a 60 second internal cooldown (ICD) and resets when you die.
  • The Ignite DoT of Firebird's Finery (2) Bonus has a maximum range of 200 yards. Once you exceed this distance to an ignited enemy the DoT is removed from the target. The Ignite DoT is also removed when you change Greater Rift floors or die.
  • You gain Combustion stacks from Firebird's Finery (4) Bonus very quickly when channeling Disintegrate. Combustion stacks decay at the rate of 2 per second.
  • Teleport Cooldown is reduced by up to 100% at 50 Combustion stacks, but still has a minimum cooldown of 0.5 seconds.
  • The Ignite DoT benefits from "Fire skills deal X% more damage" and include Critical Hit Chance and Damage (1 + CHC * CHD) as a damage multiplier but cannot proc Area Damage. Like any DoT, crit debuffs applied on monsters such as Iceblink, Multishot Wind Chill or Conflagration don't work.
  • Firebird's Finery (6) Bonus procs benefit from "Fire skills deal X% more damage" and can critically hit but cannot proc Area Damage. Crit debuffs like Iceblink or Conflagration do work.
  • Firebird's Finery (6) Bonus cannot proc from effects with a proc coefficient of 0. Thus Etched Sigil and Wand of Woh procs do not trigger the (6) Bonus!
  • Blizzard Apocalypse, Mirror Images and Hydra do not proc the (6) Bonus either.

Firebird's Finery does not buff any specific skill, it instead proc a massive Ignite every time you hit a monster with a Fire skill. This means you can virtually play this build with any Fire skill. While Mirror Images used to be a great way to proc it, it got gutted in Season 25. Nowadays, the best ways to proc Firebird's Finery are Explosive Blast with Cooldown Reduction and Deathwish as well as Spectral Blade Flame Blades with as much Attack Speed as you can stack.

Season 27 reworked Tal Rasha's Elements around Meteors bringing two new items, The Smoldering Core and Mempo of Twilight, a new Firebird's Finery variant emerged. This build takes advantage of Meteor damage multipliers and unfortunately do not care about the Firebird Ignite DoT gimmick.

Firebird Explosive Blast -
Beginner friendly

This build uses Deathwish and massive Cooldown Reduction to proc an unhealthy amount of Firebird's Finery Ignite procs. It is a rather tanky build and has a lot of mobility thanks to Teleport. It is a pretty good speedfarmer whether it is Bounties, Greater Rifts or Nephalem Rifts.

This build uses Fragment of Destiny and The Shame of Delsere as well as a massive amount of Attack Speed to generate as many Firebird's Finery Ignite procs as possible. It is a very fun and fast-paced melee Wizard build. It is however not great for Keyfarming or Bounties since it is a pure melee build.

Delsere's Magnum Opus

  • (2) Bonus automatically casts Slow Time every time you cast Arcane Orb, Explosive Blast, Energy Twister, Wave of Force, Magic Missile, Spectral Blade or Shock Pulse. This effect will not trigger if the target is already inside a Slow Time bubble. The cooldown of Teleport will reset while you're inside bubbles generated from this set or cast by you.
  • (4) Bonus provides you with a 75% damage reduction while you have a Slow Time active. Allies gain 37.5% damage reduction.
  • (6) Bonus grants you 20,000% increased damage (x201) with Arcane Orb, Explosive Blast, Energy Twister, Wave of Force, Magic Missile, Spectral Blade and Shock Pulse against enemies affected by Slow Time during the last 5 seconds.
  • Archon Slow Time works to proc Delsere's Magnum Opus Bonuses but does not stack with Slow Time.

Delsere's Magnum Opus buffs a wide array of Signature Spells and Arcane Spenders. However, the only skills with enough supporting legendaries to be worth using are Arcane Orb and Energy Twister.

This build uses The Twisted Sword, Etched Sigil and Valthek's Rebuke in order to release devastating Energy Twisters onto the battlefield. Power-wise this build is doing quite well and dominates the Delsere's Magnum Opus leaderboards.

This build uses Unstable Scepter, Triumvirate and Wizardspike to fire Frozen Orbs onto the enemies from safe distance. This build has a decent power potential but is unfortunately outclassed by the Energy Twister variant using the same set.

Vyr's Amazing Arcana

  • (2) Bonus grants Archon all runes. Its element is determined by your highest Elemental Damage Bonus.
  • (4) Bonus makes Archon stacks also increase your Armor, All Resistances and Attack Speed by 1%.
  • (6) Bonus provides you with 0.15% damage reduction per Archon Stack and makes them grant you 100% damage per stack (additive with themselves) instead of 6%. In addition, you gain an Archon stack every time you hit an enemy with an Archon ability. At 667 stacks you achieve full invincibility as the damage reduction exceeds 100%.
  • The Swami and Fazula's Improbable Chain are the most common and mandatory combo for any Archon build. The Swami stacks are additive with each other and with Archon stacks, forming one global separate damage multiplier.

Vyr's Amazing Arcana buffs Archon stacks so that they bring you a massive amount of Attack Speed and damage buff. The set's main purpose is to be used in combination with Chantodo's Resolve but it is also possible to create Reverse Archon variants using other Wizard skills such as Arcane Orb.

This build uses the Vyr Bonuses in conjunction with Chantodo's Resolve to unleash powerful waves of destruction while in Archon form. This build has very high mobility and is very reliant on Cooldown Reduction.

This build uses Vyr's Amazing Arcana in combination with the supporting legendaries for Frozen Orb : Unstable Scepter, Triumvirate and Wizardspike. This is a Reverse Archon build, taking advantage of The Swami stacks and Vyr Bonuses while outside of Archon. This is a very complicated build to master, relying on very tight timings and perfect execution to deal good damage bursts.

The Typhon's Veil

  • The Typhon's Veil works with all Hydra runes besides Mammoth Hydra, as it is not a multi-headed Hydra. The intended playstyle of this set is to never take any damage whatsoever by using the numerous shield mechanics available to the class.
  • The number of active Hydra heads is displayed on the skill bar. Keep an eye on it when you start taking damage. Make sure to set up Hydras immediately when you start a run, die or change zones in order to gain the Toughness buff. Refresh Hydras a lot when your shields are broken and you need time to recover.
  • Serpent's Sparker allows you to cast a second Hydra, effectively doubling all bonuses gained from the The Typhon's Veil set in addition to its 300% separate damage multiplier. The maximum number of heads using this item is (2 + 3) * 2 = 10 for a total of 20,000% separate damage multiplier (x201) from the (6) Bonus and 80% damage reduction from the (4) Bonus.

The Typhon's Veil buffs Hydra by granting them more heads and buffing their damage.

This build uses Serpent's Sparker, Winter Flurry, Fragment of Destiny and The Magistrate to unleash the fire power of Hydras onto the enemies. With Frost Hydras sniping monsters from far away, this is a decent speedfarmer as well as one of the best Bounty builds in the game for Wizard.

Legacy of Dreams/Legacy of Nightmares

Wizards can also build around Legacy of Dreams gem which provides a 98.5x damage multiplier at 13 Ancient items. With the ability to benefit from The Swami and Fazula's Improbable Chain to make Reverse Archon builds but also from Wizard shielding mechanics to create Shi Mizu's Haori setups, LoD Wizard builds are not to be underestimated.

For Meteor, Energy Twister and Frozen Orb, Legacy of Dreams is by far the better choice while for Hydra, LoD and Typhon's Veil have a fairly similar potential.

Support Wizard can bring a decent amount of additive damage and a great pixelpulling with Ranslor's Folly but has to fight against better alternatives, preventing them from making it into any META team.

The heir of the almighty S tier LoD Star Pact “Bazooka” build which dominated the game for a few seasons, combining Reverse Archon and channeling multipliers such as Deathwish and Legacy Etched Sigil alongside Arcane Attunement and Star Pact scaling with Arcane Power as well as Arcane Dynamo. In Season 27, LoD Meteor is making a great come-back due to Meteor buffs!

This build uses The Twisted Sword, Etched Sigil and Valthek's Rebuke in order to release devastating Energy Twisters onto the battlefield. Unlike its Set counterparts, this build can include the Archon special items (The Swami and Fazula's Improbable Chain) as well as the crazy Shi Mizu's Haori, making it one of the best Greater Rift pushers in the game.

This build uses Serpent's Sparker, Winter Flurry, Fragment of Destiny and The Magistrate to unleash the fire power of Hydras onto the enemies. Unlike its Set counterpart, this build is the only way to play around the Mammoth Hydra rune and can also include Shi Mizu's Haori, making it a very strong Greater Rift pusher.

This build uses Unstable Scepter, Triumvirate and Wizardspike to fire Frozen Orbs onto the enemies from safe distance. Thanks to Reverse Archon and Shi Mizu's Haori setups this build can easily outperform its Set counterparts, claiming the title of the strongest Frozen Orb build in the game. Unfortunately, it is outclassed by Energy Twister on the No Six Piece Set leaderboards.

The support Wizard (usually called the zWiz because they do "zero" damage) has been a niche, off-meta, supporter for quite some time. It's one of the tankiest supporters out there, thanks to Delsere's Magnum Opus (4) Bonus, and can provide up to 68.5% damage reduction, 113% additive damage, 16% Critical Hit Chance as well as a Pixelpull with Ranslor's Folly.

Legendaries

Apart from (6) Piece Sets, Wizards have 43 unique Legendary and Set items, providing bonuses to various skills and in some cases even altering their behavior.

Wands

  • Aether Walker
  • Blackhand Key
  • Fragment of Destiny
  • Serpent's Sparker
  • Slorak's Madness
  • Starfire
  • Unstable Scepter
  • Wand of Woh
  • Chantodo's Will

Swords

  • Deathwish
  • The Twisted Sword

Daggers

  • Wizardspike

Staves

  • The Grand Vizier
  • The Smoldering Core
  • Valthek's Rebuke

Sources

  • Cosmic Strand
  • Etched Sigil
  • Light of Grace
  • Mirrorball
  • Myken's Ball of Hate
  • Orb of Infinite Depth
  • Primordial Soul
  • The Oculus
  • Triumvirate
  • Winter Flurry
  • Chantodo's Force

Rings

  • Halo of Arlyse
  • Halo of Karini
  • Manald Heal

Amulets

  • Moonlight Ward

Belts

  • Fazula's Improbable Chain
  • Hergbrash's Binding
  • Jang's Envelopment
  • The Shame of Delsere

Boots

  • Nilfur's Boast

Bracers

  • Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer
  • Ranslor's Folly

Helmets

  • Mempo of Twilight

Wizard Hats

  • Archmage's Vicalyke
  • Crown of the Primus
  • Dark Mage's Shade
  • Storm Crow
  • The Magistrate
  • The Swami
  • Velvet Camaral

Below are listed select few items that have mechanics, which aren't immediately obvious from their description.

Chantodo's Resolve

Deathwish

Etched Sigil

Fragment of Destiny

Halo of Karini

Manald Heal

Orb of Infinite Depth

Ranslor's Folly

The Smoldering Core

The Shame of Delsere

The Twisted Sword

Wand of Woh

Passives

The Wizard has a wide variety of passive that mainly revolve around stacking shields and the different elements. Core passives include EvocationElemental ExposureGalvanizing Ward or Arcane Dynamo. For more details, check out the list below:

Arcane Dynamo

Astral Presence

Audacity

Blur

Dominance

Cold Blooded

Conflagration

Elemental Exposure

Evocation

Galvanizing Ward

Glass Cannon

Illusionist

Paralysis

Power Hungry

Prodigy

Temporal Flux

Unstable Anomaly

Unwavering Will

Skills

Primary Skills

Magic Missile
Shock Pulse
Spectral Blade
Electrocute

Primary skills deal a little damage and are free to cast. Known as Signature Spells for Wizards, they do not generate Arcane Power when cast. However, most builds can solve their resource issues with Arcane Power on Critical Hit, and Signature Spells are mainly used to proc Firebird's Finery, Bastions of Will, Triumvirate or Arcane Dynamo.

Damage Dealing Skills

Arcane Orb

Energy Twister

Hydra

Meteor

Explosive Blast

These are the main build-defining skills. Pick one of these, a Set that buffs it, 2-3 supporting Legendaries and you got yourself a build.

Energy Twister and Arcane Orb are the two main spenders of the Wizard. They have a lot of supporting legendaries and can be used with many sets. However, the only viable rune for Arcane Orb is Frozen Orb while Energy Twister generally goes for Wicked Wind.
Hydra is an untargetable Pet dealing a good chunk of damage and having different builds to choose from.
Meteor is a skill that has decent supporting legendaries with Star Pact being able to pull immense damage bursts in one hit.
Explosive Blast is lacking supporting damage multipliers but its low cooldown and number of consecutive hits makes it the skill of choice to proc the Firebird's Finery bonuses. It is also included in many builds to proc Orb of Infinite Depth.

Channeling Skills

Wizards have 3 channeling skills: Arcane Torrent, Disintegrate and Ray of Frost. These skills are not dealing damage by themselves. Wizards generally use them to proc the damage multiplier from Deathwish or as a utility skill to proc Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac.

Armors

Wizards can choose to have one of three Armor skills: Ice Armor, Storm Armor and Energy Armor. Only one of these can be active at any given time. They grant various utility bonuses to the Wizard. In pretty much all scenarios, your Armor will be Storm Armor in combination with Halo of Karini for its tremendous 80% damage reduction. Yet in some specific builds, Ice Armor in conjunction with Halo of Arlyse + Ancient Parthan Defenders can be used.

Utility Skills

All the other Wizard skills can be grouped together. They are used to round up the builds with extra defensive, offensive and mobility buffs, or to proc certain Sets or Legendaries.

SkillUsage
TeleportWidely used mobility and defensive skill, it allows you to move around monsters at very fast pace to dodge attacks and projectiles. The Safe Passage rune is the most popular rune for its 25% damage reduction buff while Wormhole can be used for speedfarming purposes.
Magic WeaponThis skill is mostly used with Deflection to generate shields to protect Squirt's Necklace or with Conduit to nullify Arcane Power issues.
Black HoleWidely used damage buff cooldown skill thanks to Spellsteal or Absolute Zero for Cold builds. Event Horizon can be used by Supports sometimes to remove Elite Affixes.
ArchonArchon is a very interesting cooldown skill generally used in conjunction with The Swami and Fazula's Improbable Chain to capitalize on the stack system. While in Archon form, you gain an Archon stack granting you 6% damage for every monster you kill. You can deal damage while in Archon using Vyr's Amazing Arcana and Chantodo's Resolve or outside (Reverse Archon builds), generally with Legacy of Dreams.
Slow TimeThis utility skill slows down monsters and their projectiles but is mainly used with the runes Stretch Time or Time Warp for offensive purposes. It is however required to use this skill to deal damage with Delsere's Magnum Opus.
Frost NovaUsed with Bone Chill or Deep Freeze as a damage buff cooldown in some builds.
FamiliarCompletely forgotten skill, its only niche cases are Arcanot to deal with Arcane Power issues in some farming builds and Sparkflint to get more Firebird's Finery procs.
BlizzardDoes not have any supporting legendary, its only use is to proc Winter Flurry affix for Hydra builds.
Wave of ForceDeals virtually no damage, has no supporting legendary and is only used by Arcane builds with the Arcane Attunement rune as a big damage multiplier in density.
Mirror ImageThe best way to proc Firebird's Finery Bonus by a long shot for a few seasons, it is now completely useless.

Below are listed select few build-relevant skills and their mechanics are explained in detail.

Arcane Orb Frozen Orb

Archon

Black Hole Absolute Zero

Hydra Mammoth Hydra

Meteor Star Pact

Mirror Images

Wave of Force Arcane Attunement

Summary

Overall Wizard is a class with a lot of flavor, perfectly fit for anyone who loves ranged and caster playstyle! The skill mechanics of the Wizard class are very interesting and Archon especially opens a lot of possibilities as well as deep theorycrafting opportunities about the class which I personnally enjoy a lot!

Credits

Written by Chewingnom.
Reviewed by Northwar & Raxxanterax.
Updated by Chewingnom.

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