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Vyr Reverse Archon Frozen Orb Wizard Guide

Last Updated:July 17, 2024|Change Log

Introduction

Vyr Reverse Archon Frozen Orb Solo Push
View all variants

Difficult execution, meticulous timings… Reverse Archon builds are arguably among the hardest and most satisfying setups to master in Diablo III. While they are more commonly used with Legacy of Dreams setups, Vyr Reverse Archon builds have sometimes shined in the past.

In Season 6 the zET Wizard, a setup using the Tal Rasha & Vyr combination and Energy Twisters with conerstacking, was the strongest build ever seen by a large margin, ultimately resulting in a GR130 4man clear that remained unbeaten for almost a year.

In Season 12, Reverse Archon Vyr Frozen Orb was theorycrafted and proven to be an extremely competitive setup with an incredibly hard to master but flavorful playstyle. These days, Vyr Reverse Archon setups are slightly weaker than the common Vyr-Chantodo build since Chantodo's Resolve got buffed.

In Season 24, Ethereals offered a unique opportunity for Vyr Reverse Archon builds to shine once again as they can equip Ethereals while Vyr-Chantodo could not, losing its edge.

In Season 31 with the Forbidden Archives theme, the possibility to add Deathwish to the build made the Energy Twister variant an extremely strong build, while the Frozen Orb variant is usually always the strongest one.

This is an Area Damage (AD) build, since Frozen Orbs can and will proc it. The whole playstyle revolves around the precise use of Archon cycles in conjunction with Absolute Zero and Convention of Elements, in order to unleash devastating icy explosions like a machine gun onto stacked enemies due to an incredible Attack Speed granted by Vyr's Amazing Arcana (4) Bonus. This guide will show you the way to become a phenomenal Archon spellslinger!

Unique Playstyle ✔
Fast Paced Gameplay ✔
Incredible Burst Damage ✔
Rewards Excellent Gameplay ✔

❌ Difficult Execution
❌ Not Beginner Friendly
❌ Vulnerable to Crowd Control
❌ Heavy Cooldown Dependency

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items
This build makes use of the Vyr's Amazing Arcana Set and the basic Archon Starter Kit™:

  • The Vyr's Amazing Arcana set grants us all Archon runes, 1% Resistances, Armor and Attack and 100% increased damage instead of the base 6% per Archon Stack and allows us to build Archon stacks with every enemy hit.
  • Fazula's Improbable Chain is a staple, providing us with 50 Archon stacks by default when you use Archon.
  • The Swami is mandatory, allowing us to keep our Archon stacks for 20 seconds after it expires, which is the main idea behind the Reverse Archon concept.
  • Unstable Scepter is our core Weapon, providing a 450% separate damage multiplier and a second explosion for Frozen Orbs, nearly doubling our total damage.
  • Triumvirate grants us a stacking 400% damage buff for a total 1,200% separate damage multiplier to Frozen Orb when using Signature Spells.
  • Wizardspike provides another 350% separate damage multiplier on top of a 25% chance to cast an extra Frozen Orb when attacking.
  • Squirt’s 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.
  • Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer to double our Shields, to ensure we keep the Squirt’s Necklace 100% damage multiplier.
  • Unity grants us a welcome 50% damage reduction.
  • Convention of Elements is another separate damage multiplier, giving you triple damage during your Cold cycle, which is incredibly good due to our burst playstyle.
  • Halo of Karini is a core Wizard defensive item, providing us with a tremendous 80% damage reduction at the cost of using Storm Armor.

Season 32 Ethereals

Ethereals are powerful rare weapons that can only be found during Season 32. They were initially the Season 24 Theme. They have incredible stats, a random Legendary power, and a free passive for your class. Read our Ethereal Mechanics Guide for full details on how they work and our Ethereal Farming Guide to learn how to acquire them. What you should prioritize on them is the following:

  1. The Legendary Power
    This build requires Unstable Scepter and Wizardspike to be functional. We need our Ethereal to roll one of these powers so we can cube the other. We also want a good roll on our Legendary power.
  2. The Ethereal Itself
    There are 3 different weapons available to us, each with its own benefits:
    • Wizardspike - This is the best Ethereal for this build due to its high innate Attack Speed to scale our Archon stacks potential with Vyr Bonuses and its Damage Stacking special affix.
    • The Oculus - This Ethereal is a great second choice for its damage and its high Arcane Power on Critical Hit roll. It also brings us a 25% damage reduction debuff on monsters, which is very helpful as the build is relatively squishy.
    • Mang Song's Lesson - This is a Two-Handed Staff meaning we can't use it as we have two Weapons and a Off-Hand that grant us massive damage multipliers.
  3. The Ethereal Stat Rolls
    Each Ethereal comes with its own fixed set of powerful affixes. While some have a static value, many have a wide stat range. This means the difference between good and bad rolls is significant and something you should look for.
  4. A Useful Passive
    This is just icing on the cake because a fifth passive is not going to make or break your build. You're better off hunting for the things above. Check out the Passives section down below to see which ones you're looking for.

Global Stat Priorities

You want to stack damage stats wherever possible, especially Critical Hit Chance and Damage, Area Damage as well as Cold Damage and Arcane Orb Damage. Cooldown Reduction is however your first priority as you need it on every single piece of gear. You can only afford to miss up to 2% Cooldown Reduction in total in order to reach the Breakpoint to perform a proper 32 seconds Reverse Archon cycle.

Arcane Power on Critical Hit (APoC) is mandatory on your Off-Hand in order to sustain the insane Arcane Power drain of your damage burst, which also makes Critical Hit Chance really important. Attack Speed is not really useful as Archon stacks grants you plenty of it due to Vyr's Amazing Arcana (4) Bonus.

For toughness, we prioritize Vitality and Life % as Galvanizing Ward and Magic Weapon Deflection shields are scaled on our HP pool (See Mechanics). This is why we aim for a solid HP pool in Greater Rift Solo Push. The next priority would be Armor, mainly in Chest and Pants sockets using Flawless Royal Ruby if you feel too squishy.

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 during our short damage burst window 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

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Altar of Rites

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

Frozen Orb Solo Push
Twister Solo Push
Echoing Nightmare
Vyr Reverse Archon Frozen Orb Solo Push

Concept
This is the setup described in the main sections of the guide. While the potential of this build is pretty high, it requires practice to pull off the rotation perfectly and master the gameplay.

Gameplay
Upon entering a Greater Rift you immediately activate Storm Armor and Magic Weapon. During this phase you should refrain from using the Right Click Beam except for long range pulling since it builds up Archon stacks significantly slower than the Melee Strike (Left Click). For a step-by-step gameplay description on how you should sequence your skills, check out the "Gameplay" section above.

For the Rift Guardian fight you should regularly Teleport in and out quickly to refresh your Halo of Karini damage reduction buff in time with Storm Armor. Additionally, you want to purely use Archon's Melee Strike to stack Bane of the Stricken on the Rift Guardian, since the Right Click Beam suffers from a channeling skill penalty.

Setups
If you feel too squishy, replace Elemental Exposure with Blur. At very high Paragon, you can drop Unity and Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer to cube Ring of Royal Grandeur and equip Aughild's Authority alongside more Vitality in Paragon points to scale your shields in order to maintain Squirt's Necklace. This setup loses ~35% toughness to gain around 2 Greater Rift tiers in damage.

Vyr Reverse Archon Energy Twister Solo Push

Concept
This is an Energy Twister variant of the Frozen Orb setup described in the main sections of the guide. While the build is easier to play overall, it has a lower damage burst ceiling due to channeling and Etched Sigil mechanics not synergizing well with Attack Speed.

Gameplay
Upon entering a Greater Rift you immediately activate Storm Armor and Magic Weapon. During this phase you should refrain from using the Right Click Beam except for long range pulling since it builds up Archon stacks significantly slower than the Melee Strike (Left Click).

The Archon cycle is slightly different for this variant, you enter Archon right at the start of your Convention of Elements Cold cycle to go out at the end of Cold cycle with your Arcane cycle being your last 4 seconds before reentering Archon. This allows you to set up your Energy Twister burst properly.

During your burst damage rotation, you will self cast Energy Twister as much as you possibly can to take advantage of your massive Attack Speed. Don't forget that only selfcast Twisters can proc Area Damage, and that any Etched Sigil Twister merging into a self cast Twister inherits this property. You only channel to keep up Taeguk stacks and during your Convention of Elements Arcane cycle to benefit from the Etched Sigil damage multiplier.

For the Rift Guardian fight you should regularly Teleport in and out quickly to refresh your Halo of Karini damage reduction buff in time with Storm Armor. Additionally, you want to purely use Archon's Melee Strike to stack Bane of the Stricken on the Rift Guardian, since the Right Click Beam suffers from a channeling skill penalty.

Setups
If you feel too squishy, replace Elemental Exposure with Blur. At very high Paragon, you can replace Unity with Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac to remove some Cooldown Reduction rolls on your equipment for more damage.

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 terrible for this game mode since we rely on Reverse Archon rotations. Typically we utilize a Greater Rift pushing build with a few tweaks.

Changes

  • Go for the Energy Twister variant of this build which fits more the Echoing Nightmare activity.
  • Swap Bane of the Stricken with Bane of the Powerful since we are fighting hordes of enemies.

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 Archon during a very precise window to benefit from Archon stacks outside thanks to The Swami. You are very squishy in your first rotation, and each time you drop out of Archon. Since the build is rather complicated to execute, it is recommended to take a look at the "Gameplay" and "Variants" sections below for a step-by-step gameplay description.

Video Guide

S24 GR136 Vyr Frozen Orb Gameplay Showcase

Mechanics

Arcane Orb Frozen Orb

Archon

Wizard Shields

Black Hole Absolute Zero

Elemental Exposure

Summary

  • Put together the core items and acquire the full Vyr's Amazing Arcana set.
  • Keep up your Storm Armor for Halo of Karini buff at all times.
  • Make sure to cast your Archon at the right moment and respect the 32 seconds rotation.
  • Position yourself at the right distance to explode Frozen Orbs directly on top of the enemies.
  • Hard Crowd Controls Effects and Walls are incredibly annoying during your burst damage window.

Cheers!

Credits

Thanks to LouLou for theorycrafting the original build in Season 12!
Written by Chewingnom.

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