Wizard Leveling and Fresh 70 Guide (Patch 2.7.7 / Season 31) (2024)

Last updated on Apr 10, 2024 at 09:00by Deadset58 comments

The purpose of the beginner Wizard guide is to provide you with a build anditem recommendations that will reliably carry you from leveling, through thepre-Torment difficulties and get you into low Torment farming, without requiringspecific legendary or set bonuses. The guide also includes a section for SeasonalWizards, explaining how best to take advantage of the free set from Haedrig'sGifts.

Choose the Wizard if you want to bend the elements to your will, wielding themight of fire, ice, lightning and pure arcane power into the singular purpose ofannihilating your enemies. While weaving Arcane Power into storms, twisters andexplosions, the Wizard remains safe behind by mighty shields of ice and energy— whether fighting from afar, or into fierce melee. With an ascendingArchon form that dominates any remaining opposition, the Wizard is the embodimentof elemental powers in Diablo 3.

Your progression on a given character always start with leveling to 70. Tohelp you with that, we have a beginner leveling build that you can access usingthe link below.

After reaching Level 70, the easiest way to start gearing up and progressing towardsthe end-game is by using the set given by the Haedrig's Gifts. Haedrig's Giftsare cache-like rewards that drop 2 pieces of a fixed class-specific set aftercompleting chapters II, III, and IV of the Seasonal Journey. Havinga full 6-piece set bonus available to you will skyrocket your character's power wellin the mid-to-high Torments. This makes the early portion of the Seasonal Journey yourfirst priority upon reaching Level 70.

This Season, Wizards will find the Tal Rasha's Elements set in theirHaedrig's Gifts. We have an early progression build for this set, which you canfind by clicking the link below.

While you get a fixed free set at the start of every Season, it is notunreasonable to assume you will attain other sets in quick succession. If youare interested in switching around your playstyle, take a look at the beginnerpoints for other sets below, and note to which endgame builds they point youafter.

To learn how to gear up quickly and approach a character's progression ingeneral, check out our Beginner Seasonal Guide.It includes advice and tactics related to gambling Blood Shards, doingBounties,Normal (up to T16) Rifts,Greater and Challenge Rifts, andusing Kanai's Cube for easy upgrades.

Certain items can be targeted through the completion of bounties or bosskills. The following is a list of such items, in order of importance for theclass.

• Ring of Royal Grandeur is a legendary from Act I caches that reducesthe number of set items required for set bonuses by one. While it might not beimmediately useful, obtaining powerful bonuses (such as the 4- and 6-piece setbonuses of any set) as early as possible for a huge spike in character power isan opportunity you should not pass up. Doing bounties will be inevitable forcrafting materials anyway, so optimize your farming time and get this ring assoon as possible.
• Avarice Band is an Act III cache legendary ring that extends yourpickup radius by up to 30 yards as you pick up gold. This unassuming bonus hasthe potential to turn in the strongest source of defense during normal rifts dueto its synergy with Boon of the Hoarder and Goldwrap. Their powerscombined, they can render your character practically invulnerable even in thehighest of Torment difficulties.
• Reaper's Wraps are a good bracer option for beginner Wizards, as thespenders of this class tend to be Arcane Power-heavy, and primary skills arelackluster for AP regeneration. These bracers restore up to 30% of your ArcanePower reserves when you get healed by a health globe, capped at once every 2seconds. This is an easy trigger if you keep an eye on the battlefield. Thesebracers are craftable, and the plan for their creation drops when you kill theAct V boss Malthael on any difficulty.
• Gloves of Worship are an Act II cache legendary that extends theduration of Shrines to 10 minutes, a very decent farming effect that is usuallystored in Kanai's Cube. The combined power of Empowered Shrines(doubled resource gain, halved cooldowns), Frenzied Shrines (25% Attack Speed)and Fleeting Shrines (25% increase to Movement Speed and 20 yard pickup radius),often refreshing before their 10-minute duration, is a huge buff during normalrifts. Wizards are among the classes that can benefit from Gloves of Worship, as the armor Cube slots of most of their specs areflexible enough to fit the item in.
• Illusory Boots are an Act II cache legendary item that removes enemycollision — a staple of support builds in Greater Rifts, as their precisepositioning for party-wide buffs and enemy disables dictates the course ofGreater Rift progress. Wizards are lacking in impactful support skills and arealmost never taken for that role, lowering (but not negating, especially if youplan on alts) the importance of obtaining Illusory Boots.
• Envious Blade is an Act II cache dagger with one of the most powerfulspeedfarming bonuses in the game — a guaranteed Critical Hit againstenemies at full health. A well equipped character using this dagger can oneshotentire screens of enemies in a suitable farming difficulty. Since Wizards cannot dual wield and their weapon slots are frequently taken by more importantlegendaries, Envious Blade is not considered a cache priority.
• As previously mentioned, Wizard spenders can be harsh on your Arcane Powerreserves when no set bonuses are available to skyrocket your damage. Anothercache item can easily be added to your setup to ease the strain on yourresources: the Pride's Fall helm. Obtained through Act III cache bounties,the helm reduces your resource costs by 30% after not taking damage for 5seconds, which is easily achievable with proper positioning.

The majority of the gear will be found by random chance as you farm normally,by killing monsters, opening chests, gambling at Kadala and upgrading rare itemsat the Cube. While the list below is not exhaustive, these are some of thepieces to seek, spend blood shards on, or upgrade yellows for — in orderof priority:

• Sets: While the seasonal journey will reward you with a complete set throughHaedrig's Gifts, gambling for armor set pieces still makes sense — toimprove lackluster pieces, or complete class sets other than the gifted one. TheWizard sets are:
  • Tal Rasha's Elements: Tal Rasha's Allegiance, Tal Rasha's Brace, Tal Rasha's Grasp, Tal Rasha's Guise of Wisdom. Tal Rasha's Relentless Pursuit, Tal Rasha's Stride and Tal Rasha's Unwavering Glare;
  • Firebird's Finery: Firebird's Plume, Firebird's Pinions, Firebird's Breast, Firebird's Talons, Firebird's Down, Firebird's Tarsi and Firebird's Eye);
  • Delsere's Magnum Opus (DMO): Shrouded Mask, Dashing Pauldrons of Despair, Harness of Truth, Fierce Gauntlets, Leg Guards of Mystery and Striders of Destiny;
  • Vyr's Amazing Arcana: Vyr's Sightless Skull, Vyr's Proud Pauldrons, Vyr's Astonishing Aura, Vyr's Grasping Gauntlets, Vyr's Fantastic Finery and Vyr's Swaggering Stance;
  • The Typhon's Veil: Typhon's Frons, Typhon's Tibia, Typhon's Claws, Typhon's Thorax, Typhon's Abdomen and Typhon's Tarsus;
  • Chantodo's Resolve: Chantodo's Will and Chantodo's Force.
• The weapon is by far the most impactful item on your damage output, puttinga priority on the weapon slot as the first to obtain an ancient item for. Due toits higher Blood Shard cost (75 for weapons vs. 25 for armor pieces and off-hands),you should delay weapon gambling — avoiding it at the start of characterprogression and only considering it when you start perfecting your gear. If yousimply need a specific weapon, you will get a much better deal with the UpgradeRare recipe in Kanai's Cube. The Hope of Cain recipe (1 rare item, 25 Death'sBreaths, 50 of white, blue and yellow crafting materials) will only produce thetype of item you put in (i.e. wands), cutting out all other weapons from the RNGpool that you would have to deal with through regular gambling at Kadala.Wands are the Wizard-specific one handed weapon you can easily targetthrough upgrading rares, with valuable and build-defining wands such as Fragment of Destiny, Unstable Scepter, Serpent's Sparker, Chantodo's Will, Aether Walker, Wand of Woh, and Starfire. Other weapons valuable to the Wizard include In-geom, The Twisted Sword, and Deathwish (1h swords); Wizardspike(dagger); Valthek's Rebuke (2h Staff); and The Furnace(2h Mace).
• Wizard Sources are almost equally important to their weaponcompanions, and it is recommended to gamble for them even early on due to theirlow Blood Shard price. Powerful and build altering off-hands include Orb of Infinite Depth, Chantodo's Force, Triumvirate, Winter Flurry, and Etched Sigil.
• Belts are a surprisingly important slot for the class, with severalbelts serving as crucial pieces for Wizard playstyles. Being another cheap gambleslot, you can invest a reasonable amount of Blood Shards into belts early on.Important belts include Fazula's Improbable Chain, The Shame of Delsere, Hergbrash's Binding, Goldwrap and The Witching Hour.
• Bracers can add significant toughness or utility to Wizard builds,and share the cheap gamble price of other armor slots. Wizards should invest inthe slot mid-progression, when trying to complete their initial speedfarming oraverage pushing build. The character progression bracers are usually Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer, and you also have farming-oriented staples like Nemesis Bracers and Warzechian Armguards.
• Jewelry has a huge influence on your DPS, but similarly to weapons itis expensive to gamble (50 shards for rings, 100 for amulets). When searching forspecific jewelry rolls, you should consider upgrading rares instead. Two jewelrysets are considered crucial for Wizards, both considered best-in-slot for variousbuilds: the Bastions of Will set, Focus and Restraint; andthe Endless Walk set, The Compass Rose and The Traveler's Pledge.Complementary jewelry for those sets are often Squirt's Necklace, The Flavor of Time, Halo of Karini, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, Convention of Elements or Unity. While a third jewelry setexists — the Legacy of Nightmares set, Litany of the Undaunted and The Wailing Host — Wizards tend to use its legendary gem alternative, Legacy of Dreams.
• Most remaining armor slots only have one or two desirable items for Wizards,and it is preferable to leave them to drop from normal farming instead of wastingshards and materials on the numerous possible duds for the slot. A notableexception is The Swami, a Wizard hat; it is a crucial piece in any Archon or Reverse Archon builds, and can be considered a prioritydepending on the build you aim for. In the long run, you will want to find Aquila Cuirass and Cindercoat (chest pieces); Leoric's Crown(helm); Depth Diggers (pants); Nilfur's Boast (boots); Mantle of Channeling (shoulders); Tasker and Theo and Magefist (gloves).

The table below is meant to point you in a general correct direction and isby no means indicative of the exact rolls you want to go for. They can varygreatly from build to build and it is always preferable to refer to ourexact guide page. If you simply use the rolls below however, and roll for skilldamage on the applicable pieces:

• Disintegrate, Arcane Torrent, Arcane Orb, Ray of Frost, Energy Twister, Wave of Force, Meteoron helms and boots;
• Explosive Blast, Familiar, Black Hole, Hydra, Blizzard on shoulders and chest;
• Magic Missile, Shock Pulse, Electrocute, Spectral Blade on belt and pants.

Wherever it says 'Elemental damage', match it to the rune of your damagingskill of choice. You will come out with a functional spec, and probably not toofar off from what we would recommend in a dedicated build!

Your armor sockets should be taken up by the highest tier Topaz gems you canafford at the time, while the helm is usually best filled by a Diamond gem for aboost to Cooldown Reduction. The weapon is best fitted with an Emerald. When youstumble upon jewelry with good primary stats and a socket, you should startdabbling into Legendary Gems. The best Legendary Gems for Wizards are, inrelative order of importance:

• Bane of the Trapped — staple multiplicative damage increase. Notethat the gem is self sufficient, proccing itself when fighting in melee range(where a surprising number of Wizard builds fight at).
• Bane of the Stricken — almost mandatory gem for Greater Riftprogression, as it is designed to whittle down the scaling health numbers ofmonsters with a percentage-based increase on successive attacks.
• Boon of the Hoarder — synergizing with other farming mainstayslike Avarice Band and Goldwrap, this gem will not only keep yourich, but also sped up and safe during normal rift farming.
• Situational gems — Simplicity's Strength is a primary skillempowering gem, strengthening your basic attacks with a multiplicative damageincrease and a heal. Gogok of Swiftness is a vital part ofCooldown-centric builds, which means most Archon setups for Wizards. Zei's Stone of Vengeance is a multiplicative damage increase to long rangebuilds. Enforcer is a pet-oriented gem that multiplicatively booststhe damage of pets, and is part of Hydra builds.

Kanai's Cube choices are highly build- and content-specific, making themhard to summarize. Generally speaking, Wizards should store the powers of thefollowing items in the Cube as soon as they have the materials available: Aether Walker, The Furnace, In-geom, Orb of Infinite Depth, Nemesis Bracers, Aquila Cuirass, The Swami, Goldwrap, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, Ring of Royal Grandeur, Avarice Band, Convention of Elementsand Unity.

The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Pleaserefer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our FollowerGuide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear ofyour follower.