Tal Meteor Wizard Skills and Runes (2024)

Last updated on Apr 10, 2024 at 09:00by Deadset11 comments

On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playingTal Meteor Wizard in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7.7 andSeason 31.

Active Skills
Spectral Blade Ice BladesMeteor Star Pact1Black Hole Spellsteal2Familiar Sparkflint3Teleport Safe Passage4Storm Armor Shocking Aspect
Passive Skills
AudacityArcane DynamoIllusionistElemental Exposure

You will start runs with an activation of Storm Armor and Familiar, both of which are to be kept up throughout the rift. Notethat Halo of Karini has a range requirement and try to keep track ofyour positioning relative to enemies so that the defensive buff does not dropoff. Scout out the rift and try to attract the attention of enemies to form alarge pull; once a large group of enemies trails after you, get a 4-stack of Arcane Dynamo with Spectral Blade Ice Blades. Halfway through theLightning Convention of Elements rotation, cast Black Hole toclump up enemies tightly; then, as the Arcane CoE rotation comes around, get afifth stack of Arcane Dynamo with one more cast of Spectral Blade, and drop a devastating Meteor Star Pact nuke onyour enemies' heads. During the 4-second CoE cycle, you can fit in anotherround of 5-stack Arcane Dynamo and Star Pact before CoE movesto the Cold part of the rotation.

In order to maximize your survivability, try to always position yourself ata relatively safe distance from the enemy (but not too far as to drop the Audacity bonus) with calculated Teleports around thebattlefield. Ideally, in any given fight you should be able to take down asmaller enemy first, which nets you a proc of Oculus Ring to jump into,giving you yet another damage multiplier.

Meteor is the focal point of the build, taken with its strongestburst rune — Star Pact. Its Arcane Power-dependency for damagenecessitates that you focus on extending your AP reserve through passives,gear and Paragon points (see this build's gearpage for more information). Make a point to always cast Star Pactafter you fully stack Arcane Dynamo, and always during the Arcanerotation of Convention of Elements.

To counteract the complete Arcane Power depletion of Star Pact, youwill be including a primary attack in the build — adding a resourcegeneration angle to it through the cubed The Shame of Delsere (see thisbuild's gear page for more information).Signature spells are also important to include in order to introduce a procfor the damage multiplier of Arcane Dynamo to the build. Lastly, youwill benefit from any source of protection you can layer on top during GreaterRift pushes, and a good option to fit all these purposes is found in Spectral Blade Ice Blades.

Black Hole will be taken into the build as means of crowdcontrolling the enemy and building up large pulls. Our general recommendationis to take the rune Spellsteal, which offers a balanced split betweenan offensive and a defensive buff, as well as an Arcane proc for Tal Rasha.

A duo of long-lasting buffs will take care of the two remaining Tal Rasha set elemental procs:

• Fire Proc: Sitting quietly in the background, Familiar willprovide a decent, 10% damage increase from the rune Sparkflint, aswell as an automated proc for the Fire portion of the Tal Rasha setbonuses.
• Lightning Proc: As consistent means of protection, you will beadding Storm Armor to the build. With a fire-and-forget duration of 10minutes and a negligible damage proc, it can be easily overlooked — ifnot for the massive damage reduction properties of Halo of Karini (seethis build's gear page for more information).You will be taking the rune Shocking Aspect for the superior uptime ofthe procs for the Karini buff.

Last but not least, Teleport will round out your skillselection with valuable maneuverability across the battlefield; either toengage, reposition, or simply move away from an unfavorable fight. Thepreferred rune is the protective Safe Passage, which — coupledwith the cooldown-resetting powers of the Illusionist passive —allows you to maintain distance from the enemy along with a helpful damagereduction buff on top.

3.

Passives

Audacity is a natural inclusion for the fighting style of a MeteorWizard — you will be casting your burst rotation right in the thick ofthe fight, where you will get the most out of this damage multiplier.

Arcane Dynamo fits into the goals of the build nicely, as spamming a The Shame of Delsere-empowered primary skill is necessary for ArcanePower build-up for Star Pact anyway, and the passive's five-stackmechanic will feed extra damage to your burst.

A powerful survival tool is hidden in your Illusionist passive,turning Teleport from a strategic cooldown into a constantlyavailable asset. The requirement of 15% life taken per hit is calculated priorto mitigation and translates into “any hit taken” in high Greater Rifts. Theadditional 30% movement speed after using some of the build's core abilitiesis just icing on the cake.

Elemental Exposure is taken to bolster your damage through yourmyriad of elemental damage sources. Notice that the passive bumps damage in 5%increments per element used; you fulfill the fire with Sparkflint,cold with Ice Blades, lightning with Storm Armor, and arcanewith Spellsteal and Star Pact. If you find yourself toosquishy, or want to feel safer in Hardcore, you can consider dropping thispassive for Blur or Unwavering Will.

4.

Changelog

• 10 Apr. 2024: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 31.
• 10 Jan. 2024: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 30.
• 13 Sep. 2023: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 29.
• 22 Feb. 2023: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 28.
• 26 Aug. 2022: Guide added, as well as Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.

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