Diablo 3
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LoD Meteor “Bazooka” Wizard Guide
Last Updated: July 10th 2024
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Introduction
The Meteor Wizard has been dictating the META using the Star Pact from Season 12 to Season 19, especially from Season 16 to 19 with the infamous LoD “Bazooka” build (see Mechanics for a complete overview). However with Season 20, channeling interactions have been nerfed to bring down that setup, leaving the build in a much weakened state.
However with the Season 27 rework to Tal Rasha's Elements and its supporting Meteor items The Smoldering Core and Mempo of Twilight, the build has caught up to its former glory and beyond!
Since Tal Rasha's Elements comes with severe skills and gear choice restrictions, Legacy of Dreams is a very interesting road to take as it allows for skill and gear choice freedom on top of enabling Reverse Archon and even Shi Mizu's Haori setups.
While the Bazooka concept was initially mostly overlooked, it was eventually proven during Season 27 with Sanctified Items that the build still holds mad potential as showcased here. During Season 29, Star Pact builds were under steroids due to the Paragon Cap with special distribution rules, allowing for +100 Arcane Power and 200% Area Damage!
This build can use different Meteor runes. Star Pact is the strongest one used with Archon to push the highest Greater Rifts while Thunder Crash is used for speedfarming content. Comet is also a powerful choice for pushing. During Season 27, a specific Messerschmidt's Reaver setup was made possible taking advantage of a zMonk using Sanctified Wave of Light.
This is an Area Damage (AD) build, since Meteors can proc it. The whole playstyle revolves around the precise use of Archon cycles in conjunction with Star Pact and various damage multipliers, in order to unleash devastating Meteor rains onto stacked enemies (see Mechanics). All in all, this build is a powerhouse of Greater Rift pushing, especially in groups where a single well-placed Star Pact can destroy entire screens. Fasten your seat belts for the almighty "Bazooka" Wizard!
Flavorful ✔
Unique Playstyle ✔
Insane AoE Damage ✔
Rewards Excellent Gameplay ✔
❌ Complicated Mechanics
❌ High Gear Requirements
❌ High Cooldown Dependency
❌ Vulnerable to Crowd Control
Core Setup
Items
- The Grand Vizier provides us a 400% damage multiplier while cutting the Meteor Resource Cost in half.
- The Smoldering Core boosts Meteor damage by 50% damage per hit up to 3 times and taunts enemies towards Meteor Impacts.
- Nilfur’s Boast gives us another huge 600% damage multiplier and even up to 900% when you hit 3 targets or less.
- Mempo of Twilight grants us another 400% damage multiplier on top of providing us with the Meteor Shower rune.
- Squirt’s Necklace is a default inclusion for most Wizard builds due to their shield strength, boosted by Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer.
- Halo of Karini is a core Wizard defensive item, providing us with a tremendous 80% damage reduction at the cost of using Storm Armor.
- Aquila Cuirass grants us 50% damage reduction.
- The Swami & Fazula's Improbable Chain enables the Reverse Archon playstyle to massively boost our damage nuke.
- Convention of Elements is another separate damage multiplier, giving you triple damage during your Elemental cycle.
- Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac is used to reset the Archon cooldown.
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:
- The Legendary Power
This build requires The Grand Vizier and The Smoldering Core to be functional. We need our Ethereal to roll The Grand Vizier power so we can cube The Smoldering Core which is not available on Ethereals. We also want a good roll on our Legendary power if it has a range. For speed content it is always helpful to have Ethereals with Echoing Fury, In-geom or Messerschmidt's Reaver powers, so keep those if you find them. - The Ethereal Itself
There are 3 different weapons available to us, each with its own benefits:- Mang Song's Lesson - This is an amazing Ethereal for all kind of content from speed runs to endgame push. Its 50% Undead Damage makes it unbelievably strong on specific monstersets, especially the Hulks & Dust Eaters one.
- The Oculus - This is the option you can go for when it comes to speed content, especially T16 farming, due to its Damage Reduction debuff and its high Arcane Power on Critical Hit (APoC) roll to help out with resources.
- Wizardspike - This Ethereal can be used instead of The Oculus for speed content or as 1-Hander push option due to its Stacking Damage affix.
- 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. - 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 Elemental Damage and Meteor Damage. When playing Star Pact, fit Maximum Arcane Power and Resource Cost Reduction everywhere you can to scale Star Pact damage. Cooldown Reduction is however your first priority when playing Archon as you need it on every single piece of gear to perform a proper 32 seconds Reverse Archon cycle. Arcane Power on Critical Hit (APoC) is mandatory to get on Wizard Hat to generate enough Arcane Power sustain.
In regard to toughness, like most Wizard setups, we take advantage of Galvanizing Ward and Magic Weapon Deflection to generate Shields based on our HP pool. This means Vitality and Life % are very important as they double dip into Shields. This is the reason why you want to aim for a decent HP pool in Greater Rift Solo Push.
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 and mitigating these will ease up our gameplay significantly. Make sure to get the Primary Affixes locked in before attempting to get CCR though.
Variants
Nephalem Rifts
GR Solo Speeds
GR Solo Push
GR Group Trash Killer
Echoing Nightmare
Concept
In T16 we don’t need a lot of damage, so we can use a lot more mobility instead. Once you have all the pieces together, the damage is good enough to comfortably oneshot most enemies. It’s useful to stack up Resource Cost Reduction to be able to spam your skills as much as possible.
Gameplay
Very straightforward: Be fast, use your Teleport to move around quickly and throw Meteor everywhere. Make sure to keep up all your buffs while doing so (Magic Weapon, Storm Armor, Familiar.
Setups
If you find yourself running out of resources all the time, drop Familiar for a Signature Spell and combine it with The Shame of Delsere.
In groups, use Nemesis Bracers & Avarice Band and Gloves of Worship instead of Warzechian Armguards, Convention of Elements and Magefist.
Concept
This is the faster, more fluid version suited for low Greater Rifts. With Aether Walker and no need to stack up The Smoldering Core first, we can decimate everything on the screen immediately by simply spamming Meteor Thunder Crash. We use Stone of Jordan to convert our Fire into Lightning damage. This build doesn't require Cooldown Reduction but instead stacks a lot of Resource Cost Reduction.
Gameplay
At the start, activate your buffs Storm Armor and Magic Weapon. Additionally, spam Explosive Blast to profit from Orb of Infinite Depth. Go fast and throw Meteor everywhere. Use your Black Hole to group up enemies and buff yourself.
Setups
If you have too much trouble with Arcane Power, remove the rune from Meteor so you can profit from Cindercoat. Instead of Magefist, you can wear St. Archew's Gage for additional shields when you engage Elite Packs.
It is also possible to play with both The Grand Vizier and The Smoldering Core for slower higher Greater Rift farming. For more toughness, you can drop Elemental Exposure for Dominance or Unstable Anomaly.
Select Build Version
Bazooka Setup
Concept
We play a 32 second Archon rotation, relying on massive amounts of Cooldown Reduction, Gogok of Swiftness and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac. We stack up all damage buffs imaginable to throw a big Meteor combo with Archon-stack overlap and Convention of Elements active.
Gameplay
The gameplay is described in more detail in the section above. Activate your buffs at the start of a run and once again within 10 minutes (Storm Armor and Magic Weapon).
Stack up Gogok of Swiftness, then enter Archon on the Arcane cycle. As you exit Archon, reset its cooldown by throwing Meteors and stack up Arcane Dynamo exactly 4 times. Then cast Black Hole Spellsteal for the damage buff, get the final Arcane Dynamo stack and throw the final Meteor to land during Arcane. Make sure to enter Archon in that moment and repeat.
Setups
If you have toughness issues or problems to get full Arcane Power back for your damage rotation, you can use Magic Weapon Conduit and swap Black Hole with Diamond Skin Prism. Audacity can be replaced with a defensive choice like Blur or Unstable Anomaly if needed.
At the very high end (Paragon 5000+), it's possible to drop Aquila Cuirass for Shi Mizu's Haori while replacing all Recovery and Critical Hit Chance stats with more Area Damage and Defensive Stats.
Concept
This version does not rely on the Archon rotation or Cooldown Reduction. You can always move around with Teleport and deal damage outside of the Convention of Elements cycle. We go for a strong nuke during our Arcane CoE cycle using Star Pact in conjunction with Deathwish.
Gameplay
Activate your buffs at the start of a run and again within 10 minutes (Storm Armor. Always keep up Orb of Infinite Depth.
Gather enemies using Teleport. As your Convention of Elements Arcane cycle is coming up, cast Black Hole Spellsteal, make sure you have 5 stacks of Arcane Dynamo, cast Star Pact then immediatly channel Disintegrate for Deathwish.
Setups
Elemental Exposure can be replaced with a defensive choice like Blur or Unstable Anomaly if needed.
At the very high end (Paragon 5000+), it's possible to drop Aquila Cuirass for Shi Mizu's Haori while replacing all Recovery and Critical Hit Chance stats with more Area Damage and Defensive Stats.
Concept
This version does not rely on the Archon rotation or Cooldown Reduction. You can always move around with Teleport and deal damage outside of the Convention of Elements cycle.We go for a strong nuke during our Arcane CoE cycle using Star Pact.
Gameplay
Activate your buffs at the start of a run and again within 10 minutes (Storm Armor and Magic Weapon).
Gather enemies using Teleport. As your Convention of Elements Arcane cycle is coming up, make sure you have 5 stacks of Arcane Dynamo and cast Star Pact.
Setups
Elemental Exposure can be replaced with a defensive choice like Blur or Unstable Anomaly if needed.
At the very high end (Paragon 5000+), it's possible to drop Aquila Cuirass for Shi Mizu's Haori while replacing all Recovery and Critical Hit Chance stats with more Area Damage and Defensive Stats.
Concept
This version is way easier to play and gear as we don't rely on the Archon rotation or Cooldown Reduction. You can always move around with Teleport and deal damage outside of the Convention of Elements cycle. We go for a strong nuke during our Cold CoE cycle using Comet.
Gameplay
Activate your buffs at the start of a run and again within 10 minutes (Storm Armor and Magic Weapon).
Gather enemies using Teleport. As your Convention of Elements Cold cycle is coming up, cast Black Hole Absolute Zero and spam Comet.
Setups
Elemental Exposure can be replaced with a defensive choice like Blur or Unstable Anomaly if needed.
At the very high end (Paragon 5000+), it's possible to drop Aquila Cuirass for Shi Mizu's Haori while replacing all Recovery and Critical Hit Chance stats with more Area Damage and Defensive Stats.
Concept
We play a 32 second Archon rotation, relying on a massive amount of Cooldown Reduction and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac. We stack up all damage buffs imaginable to throw a big Star Pact combo with Archon stack overlap and Convention of Elements active. Note that the build is perfectly playable manually since the Deathwish & Archon interaction is long gone. Be warned this setup puts a crazy amount of pressure on the zBarb and it is pretty much required to have a skilled one to get good results.
Gameplay
Activate Storm Armor and Magic Weapon as soon as you start a Greater Rift.
Enter Archon on the Arcane cycle. As you exit Archon, you have 12 seconds to get your Archon Cooldown back for your Arcane cycle. This requires you to spam Wave of Force Arcane Attunement for Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac procs. During your Lightning cycle, get 5 stacks of Arcane Dynamo then throw Star Pact a split second before Arcane. Immediatly turn into Archon and Teleport into an Oculus Ring or at the edge of the screen for Zei's Stone of Vengeance if there is none.
Setups
It is also possible to play with Mang Song's Lesson which is in theory way more damage but this setup has proven to be incredibly tedious in practice due to Attack Speed rate and Cooldown requirements. Indeed, the Cooldown Reduction requirements and the rotation to pull off to reset Archon in time are no joke.
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 good for this game mode. Typically we utilize a Greater Rift speed build with a few tweaks.
Changes
- Discard The Smoldering Core for Aether Walker and Tal Rasha's Unwavering Glare.
- Go for Thunder Crash since these meteors have no landing delay, which blends perfectly with this game mode.
- Equip Bane of the Powerful since we are fighting hordes of enemies.
- Drop Convention of Elements for Stone of Jordan.
- Reroll Area Damage to Average Damage as we do not need to make huge pulls.
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 Storm Armor as soon as you enter. Dominance and Galvanizing Ward will make sure you get permanent full benefit from Squirt's Necklace. Storm Armor Power of the Storm is making sure your Meteor has almost no Arcane Power cost... Spam Thunder Crash everywhere... Profit!
Video Guide
Mechanics
Summary
- Put together the core items and level up the Legacy of Dreams gem.
- Use Meteor Thunder Crash for farming and Star Pact for pushing.
- Keep up your Storm Armor/Halo of Karini and Magic Weapon buffs at all times.
- Stack up tons of Cooldown Reduction and execute the combo right for massive nukes with Archon.
- Several non-Archon variants are playable an easier to build but weaker.
- Play around the Convention of Elements cycle to maximize your DPS.
I hope you enjoyed this guide! Meteor is one of the coolest and visually appealing skills in the Wizard's arsenal. The Star Pact Archon playstyle offers a challenge allows you to create some of the most impactful nuke combos in the game.
Good luck!
Credits
Thanks to Northwar for help & wudijo for initial write-up!
Overhauled & Updated by Chewingnom.
