Disclaimer: This guide is the Season 30 Guide for the Tal'Rasha Explosive Blast Build which is no longer maintained since it became a niche and weak build with the Tal Rasha's Elementsrework. For up-to-date Tal'Rasha guide, go to the Tal'Rasha Meteor Guide!
The Explosive Blast Wizard is one of the most iconic Wizard builds since the expansion Reaper of Souls and the introduction of Wand of Woh. Ever since Wizards around the world have been, quite literally, blasting their way through hordes of enemies in Sanctuary. The build can technically be played as a Legacy of Dreams, Firebirds Finery and even Delseres Magnum Opus variant, however it is most commonly played with Tal Rashas Elements due to its crossover capabilities with Aughild's Authority, Sage's Journey, Cain's Destiny or Captain Crimson's Trimmings.
All variants have one thing in common: they are incredibly reliant on Cooldown Reduction and therefore In-geom dependent. Your goal is, after the first elite kill, to ride on a 'wave of consecutive In-geom procs' straight to the end of the rift.
In terms of playstyle Tal Rasha's ElementsExplosive Blast (Tal EB) plays uniquely. You are continuously teleporting, running and mindlessly spamming Frost Nova, Explosive Blast and Diamond Skin plowing through hordes of enemies. Those three skills do not have a casting animation, meaning your character won't need to stop running to cast them and you'll be granted shields from Magic Weapon Deflection. This synergy allows you to blast your enemies comfortably.
❌ In-Geom Dependent ❌ Requires Good Gear ❌ Incapable of High GRs ❌ Clunky and Weak at Rift Start
Core Setup
Core Item Build
Items
Tal Rasha's Elements provides us with a 8,000% separate global damage multiplier but requires us to juggle four abilities with four different elements Arcane, Cold, Lightning and Fire.
Wand of Woh grants us 3 additional casts of Explosive Blasts and is also a 400% separate damage multiplier.
Orb of Infinite Depth provides up to 80% damage reduction and a 40% separate damage multiplier.
In-geom requires us to kill Elites in quick succession, however provides us with flat -10 seconds on all cooldowns, which is insane for Explosive Blast.
Nemesis Bracers spawns an Elite pack each time we click a Shrine or Pylon, which tremendously helps with In-geom uptime. Our follower wear them for us.
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.
Ring of Royal Grandeur lets us wear one fewer Set item, allowing us to equip additional legendary items.
Captain Crimsons Trimmings not only reduces our cooldowns by additional 20% but also grants us a separate damage multiplier based on our overall Cooldown 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:
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 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.
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 Fire Damage to boost our character's power the furthest.
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
The overall Cooldown Reduction (CDR) you have significantly impacts your overall damage output, especially when In-geom is not active. Therefore, your highest priority is to incorporate CDR on all slots except the Amulet. Attack Speed does not scale our damage output, which is why we reroll it from Tal Rashas Relentless Pursuit with the Mystic. You prefer Critical Hit Chance (CHC) and Critical Hit Damage (CHD) over Area Damage (AD) because Area Damage unfortunately only works on self-cast Explosive Blasts — additional casts from Wand of Woh cannot proc Area Damage.
Crowd Control Reduction (CCR) 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.
Create a level 1 Demon Hunter and upgrade Swords to get In-Geom
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 and Pauldrons of the Skeleton King
Act 2: Gloves of Worship (for your follower)
Act 3: Avarice Band
Act 4: Can drop any bounty item from any act
Bounty Turn In: Recipes for Sage's Journey, Cain's Destiny, Captain Crimson's Trimmings and Aughild's Authority
6. There is one final required piece that is difficult to acquire, Squirt's Necklace. With amulets being so expensive to gamble and craft, we'll have to search for it to drop in Nephalem and Greater Rifts. The biggest hint is to party up with other players and kindly ask them to drop any duplicates they find.
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. Socket 2. Critical Hit Damage 3. Fire Damage 4. Critical Hit Chance 5. Cooldown Reduction 6. Intelligence
Belt
Captain Crimsons Silk Girdle (Crafted) Tal Rasha's Brace Goldwrap (Cubed)
1. Intelligence 2. Vitality 3. Life % 4. Armor
Potion
Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered
To avoid Crowd Control effects during your DPS phases
Gems
Bane of the Trapped grants us a global separate 1.6 damage multiplier. We must stand within 15 yards of our enemies to apply its effect, which won't be a problem since we are basically a melee Wizard.
Wreath of Lightning is used for the 25% Movement Speed bonus in Nephalem Rifts.
Bane of the Powerful makes it easier for us to kill elites, which we desperately need to kill due to In-geom.
Gogok of Swiftness provides us with additional Cooldown Reduction and some Dodge Chance for survivability.
For Nephalem Rifts, Boon of the Hoarder is always included due to its amazing synergy with Avarice Band and Goldwrap.
Skills
Magic Weapon Deflection grants us a shield each time we use any ability. Since we are spamming Diamond Skin, Frost Nova and Explosive Blast on cooldown without interrupting our character, we'll have plenty of shielding to keep up our Squirts Necklace.
Explosive Blast Chain Reaction is our main damage ability, which is repeated 3 additional times by Wand of Woh, and activates the Fire element of Tal Rashas Elements.
Frost Nova Frozen Mist is the only Wizard ability that allows us to gain the Cold element of Tal Rashas Elements without a casting animation. Any other rune on Frost Nova doesn't work.
Teleport provides us with great mobility in combination with In-geom. Calamity is played since it's the only Teleport rune that activates the Arcane element of Tal Rashas Elements.
Electrocute is the fastest (casting animation) Signature Spell Wizard has, which is why we pick it to gain the Lightning element of Tal Rashas Elements.
Diamond Skin Prism is needed due to the excessive amount of Arcane Power we spend when In-geom is active. We won't be able to regenerate enough Arcane Power in time without it.
Passives
Unstable Anomaly grants us a cheat death as we are completely helpless at the start of every Rift.
Audacity provides us with a separate 1.3 multiplier if our target is within 15 yards.
Evocation grants us a 20% Cooldown Reduction.
Illusionist provides us with 30% Movement Speed for 3 seconds after we Teleport.
Elemental Exposure if you are comfortable enough to drop the cheat death. It is a separate and global multiplier debuffing each target once for each element (Fire, Cold, Arcane, Lighting) for up to 5 seconds when you hit it with said target. The elemental type of the damage range on your equipped weapon will also be applied with each ability that you hit with.
Dominance is used in Solo Speeds to help us maintain Squirt's Necklace.
Conflagration is a decent option for slightly more damage if you have a fifth passive.
Paragon Points
Core
Offensive
Defensive
Utility
1. Movement Speed
1. Cooldown Reduction
1. Armor
1. Area Damage
2. Maximum Arcane Power
2. Critical Hit Damage
2. Life %
2. Resource Cost Reduction
3. Intelligence
3. Critical Hit Chance
3. All Resistance
3. Pickup Radius
4. Vitality
4. Attack Speed
4. Life Regeneration
4. Life per Hit
Altar of Rites
The Altar of Rites is a tree that grants tremendous powers to your entire account in exchange for sacrifices. It requires you to farm Bounties, kill the Ubers, craft the Staff of Herding, and more. Completing all 26 of these tasks, along with sacrificing 6 Primal Ancients grants you extra Damage, Defense, Quality of Life, Increased Drops and 3 Potion Super Powers. Read the full guides on Unlocking the Altar and the Altar Mechanics by Raxxanterax and Chewingnom to learn everything about this fantastic mechanic!
Note: The suggested path assumes you are playing Solo and used the Challenge Rift Cache to help you level up.
Optimal Path
Node 2: Choose Anointed to gain a full set of 70 yellows from level 18-70!
Node 6: Rush to gain double Bounties to help unlock other Nodes in the Altar.
Node 7: Take Vigor to help your build sustain its resources.
Nodes 8-14: These are the last Nodes you can gain until the Challenge Rift resets. Take at least 1 Node at the bottom of each path to unlock all 3 Potion Super Powers. Pick up the Mirror Node at the top for a colossal 41% extra XP all season. Remember to unlock Father once you clear GR70 solo and have your first Primal!
Nodes 15-26: Pick up the final Quality of Life, Damage, and Defense Nodes (in that order) to finish the Altar.
Potion Super Powers: Take Father first, then Mother, and finally Mortal.
Disclaimer: The Mortal and Mother Potions require you to salvage 2 and 3 Primals respectively. Unlock them as soon as you have those materials as they don't cost a point!
Recommended Altar Path Use the Scroll Bar to see Altar Progression
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.
Speed GR Enchantress
For speed Greater Rifts 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 speed 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 more progression from Elites.
Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
Hellfire Ring, Leoric's Crown and Cain's Destiny: For more Experience and Attack Speed.
Gameplay
Playing Tal Rashas ElementsExplosive Blast is one of the most spammy and brainless builds out there for Wizard.
Maintain your Buffs:
Cast Magic Weapon and refresh it if needed.
Cast Frost Nova (Cold), Teleport (Arcane), Electrocute (Lightning) and Explosive Blast (Fire) right away to gain all four elements of Tal Rashas Elements. Afterwards, it will suffice to alternate between two of these abilities to continuously refresh the set buff.
Damage:
Jump on Elites with Teleport and mindlessly spam Frost Nova, Explosive Blast and Diamond Skin.
The first elite, when In-geom is not up, will take significantly longer than any consecutive one. You'll have less shielding from Magic Weapon Deflection at this point and significantly lower DPS.
Listen to the soothing sound of your Wizard continously casting Explosive Blast.
Hardcore
Rotate out Elemental Exposure for Unstable Anomaly and incorporate Esoteric Alteration instead of Bane of the Powerful. Check out our dedicated Hardcore Survival Guide to learn more about how to succeed in this game mode!
Variants
Nephalem Rifts
GR Solo Speeds
Echoing Nightmare
Tal Rasha Explosive Blast T16
Concept Explosive Blast is one of the most relaxing Nephalem Rift farmers for Wizard. In terms of efficiency (keys/hour) it unfortunately won't quite live up to the best Wizard keyfarm builds.
Like usual we utilize Boon of the Hoarder with Goldwrap and Avarice Band to become invincible and instantly vacuum the juicy Progression Orbs from Elites. In-geom will not only greatly increase our DPS by removing the cooldown from Explosive Blast, but also significantly increases our mobility via Teleport. There is a lot of value in increased Movement Speed since we are continuously running (Diamond Skin, Frost Nova and Explosive Blast have no casting animation). Therefore, Wreath of Lightning and Illusionist will get us faster from Elite to Elite to ensure our In-geom buff does only time out once in a while.
Gameplay Activate Magic Weapon once and continuously (and mindlessly) spam Frost Nova, Explosive Blast and Diamond Skin while teleporting on top of Elites. Quickly grab your loot and move on to the next Elite.
Setups Early in a fresh season, you can sacrifice Warzechian Armguards and Pauldrons of the Skeleton King to equip Aughild's Authority instead, which will increase both your toughness and damage output. Convention of Elements is not mandatory and mainly helps to get your initial In-Geom proc and kill the Rift Guardian. Hence it can be removed to take any Ring such as Unity if you need it, or Stone of Jordan.
In groups, swap Convention of Elements to Avarice Band and Warzechian Armguards with Nemesis Bracers and finally Pauldrons of the Skeleton King with Homing Pads. Rotate out Captain Crimson's Trimmings for Sage's Journey and, on the Rift Guardian, switch to Cain's Destiny to get a chance for additional Greater Rift Keystones.
Tal Rasha Explosive Blast Solo Speeds
Tal Rashas Elements with Explosive Blast is an acceptable Solo Greater Rift farmer to grind some experience and gear. However, it gets outclassed by many Wizard builds. While it lacks the necessary DPS to compete with these other builds, it easily makes up for it by being incredibly easy and comfortable to play.
Gameplay Your biggest enemy at the start of any Greater Rift is the Cooldown on your Explosive Blast. Your goal is to kill the first Elite, which should not take you longer than 15 seconds, to then snowball through to GR riding your In-geom buff. Additional Elite packs spawned by Nemesis Bracers (from our follower) will significantly help to achieve this goal. Spam Frost Nova, Diamond Skin and Explosive Blast off-cooldown, regardless if you have an In-geom buff or not.
Setups There isn't much freedom in this setup. You can rotate out Bane of the Powerful for Esoteric Alteration if you feel too squishy.
Swap Warzechian Armguards with Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan.
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 Frost Nova (Cold), Teleport (Arcane), Electrocute (Lightning) and Explosive Blast (Fire) right away to gain all four elements of Tal Rashas Elements. Afterwards, it will suffice to alternate between two of these abilities to continuously refresh the set buff. Focus Elites to keep up In-geom. Spam Explosive Blast mindlessly.
Mechanics
Wand of Woh
The three additional casts from Wand of Woh cannot proc Area Damage.
The Explosive Blast cast by Wand of Woh will inherit the rune selected from your skillbar.
Orb of Infinite Depth
Orb of Infinite Depth grants you stacks even when Explosive Blast is coming from Wand of Woh.
The damage reduction is self-additive up to 80% at 4 stacks.
Tal Rashas Elements
Each element (Arcane, Cold, Fire, Lightning) has its own unique stack with a 8 second duration.
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.
The 2,000% damage buff per stack is self-additive, for a total 8,000% separate damage multiplier.
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. This is why Item Stat Priorities state you want a weapon with Lightning Damage Range.
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.
Find an Elite to kill as soon as you enter a Rift.
Ride on your In-Geom procs letting your Wand of Woh blasts everything.
Enjoy the soothing sound of never-ending Explosive Blasts casts!
