I’ve completed my non-seasonal testing of Typhon’s Veil in solo push.
Clear potential
Managed a GR123, 2 minutes ahead, and was about 45s behind on a GR124.
This is at 2k paragon simulated (used my extra paragon as simulated augments and ancients. I was wearing a lot of non-ancient gear). ~30 keys used in testing.
https://ptr.d3planner.com/345101315
With higher effort fishing, perhaps 200 or more keys, I can see a GR125 possible for Typhon’s @ 2kp, especially with a power pylon on the RG.
Gearwise, I was missing about 40% possible area damage, and 20% cold, but made up for the last with an extra 1k INT, in the very least. So some minor extra potential there (less than about half a GR). Going higher in GR though would most certainly challenge toughness even more, and possibly result in more Squirt’s downtime, which is of course, a pretty significant loss of multiplier, so in all, the extra INT wasn’t so bad at this paragon, given that Absolute Zero was there to supplement Cold%.
Karini worn with Tri affix is a possibility, but there is also the chance at 2k paragon that you’d be stuck like in this test, with an ancient RoRG instead. Maybe 4% damage increase there.
Mechanics Notations:
- Noted Hydra head death order still not matching FIFO ordering in regards to hydra spawn order.
- 4pc shielding issue appears to be resolved, but still felt fairly squishy at times.
Gameplay / Style
Very similar to LoD with Black hole, but this build can opt to manually cast Black hole more often, since there is no constraint on resource. Absolute zero also has a longer duration. This actually made it a little more easygoing to play, and easier to gear for item affix-wise. Because of the channeling changes though, felt bad to have to cast manually, at the cost of some amount of channel, but was good the option was there if CC was required.
Similarly, Frost Hydra as a choice is more easygoing. While I chose Audacity for my push, I could easily see players opting for Power Hungry and the build would still work fairly well. This is because Frost Hydra chills before damage, and therefore can apply Trapped at range. Generally I preferred Audacity as this was the better option for synergy with the black hole in density. The attack from Frost Hydra is also fairly short range, similar to Mammoth Hydra.
However, because so many item slots are tied up with multipliers (looking at you magistrate), the toughness is still an issue. Often, if my Karini fell I’d get oneshot. Elite affixes were noticeably more damaging, and Squirt’s uptime was more in contention.
Similarly frustrating is respawning or level transitions. You have to resummon the Hydras to get the 4pc DR. Takes a full 2-2.5s to cast two hydras, Storm armor, and MW:D to get all of your toughness active. Forgetting to cast Hydra after transitioning levels is also really painful and punishing.
Taeguk was one of the biggest upsides to this playstyle. The toughness from this item was actually nice to have, and though it was a Stricken-less push build, it felt good to destroy the rift, and have the extra ramp up damage there. It’s especially nice to have Taeguk in the additive pool, because Absolute zero is boosting our Cold%, not additive like Spellsteal.
While it felt bad to have to channel to keep up Taeguk when I didn’t have the increased damage from channeling multipliers at times, the gem itself still made the gameplay more interesting. It makes you feel like you’re doing something with your channel other than only using it for the rune and DW + ES multipliers.
Toughness was more in contention (by this measure you could say that more attention was paid to not taking damage). This lent the feeling that I was babysitting the Squirt’s more than I had to at times, especially when engaging bad or unfavorable mob types (means more fishing). However, it felt all the more rewarding to keep up Squirt’s in time for CoE Cold.
The inclusion of Illusionist made mobility less problematic, and also felt great for moving into Oculus ring spawns quickly or dodging elite affixes.
Knockbacks, fear, CC, Frozen, still an issue with this build, same as with LoD, however, it feels even more like with TV you have less option for immunity items. Best bet is just go as high as possible on CC% reductions. I can see potentially placing Invigorating gemstone as the best alternate option, at the cost of quite a lot of multiplier or additive damage.
Summary & Revised Multiplier Recommendations
TV is at about the same clear potential as my 2kp test for LoD. Difference here was I spent more keys getting the GR123 down with TV as compared to LoD, with TV I used about 30 keys trying to get a rift with adequate elites and decent mobtype, pylons.
I have adjusted my estimate in the larger post about LoD above for both the SS and Magistrate values and TV 6pc.
Now recommended:
- SS / Magi: 500% (6x)
- TV 6pc: 1400% to 1500%.
At 6x, 1500% this is:
- 5.16 GR increase for LoD.
- 6.07 GR increase for Typhon’s Veil.
Compared to current 4x, 1300%.
For the 6.5x down to 6x adjustment, I reason that LoD had slightly more potential than I explored in it.
The reasoning behind the decrease in my TV 6pc recommendation is twofold. While the toughness issues did come into effect (my Squirt’s multiplier was down a significant amount of time with the TV build in testing), managing the toughness and avoiding damage properly results in higher uptime, and I can see how TV could provide more damage than we originally thought.
Even still, I have the feeling it could still use a little more separation from LoD via the 6 piece.
Other recommendations
- I want to reiterate the need for more space in this build item wise. The fact that we are required to cube or use RoRG with the set to attain even a moderate AS BP, and still don’t have options for defense, offense, or utility here is kind of upsetting. As before, my recommended is to shift all multiplier from the Magistrate to Serpent sparker, and enhance the crowd control mechanics of Magistrate to make it even more appealing (perhaps Deep Freeze, Bone Chill, Cold Snap runes of Frost nova provided?).
- Would be nice if Hydra head death order matched FIFO ordering in regards to hydra spawn order. As in, Hydra heads die off the hydra that was first summoned, so that when a recast is issued, it always replaces any heads lost from that hydra.
- Why no base toughness from the 4 piece yet?
- Also, why do the shoulders still roll with the +Armor item affix as a default? This is a terrible default, no Wizard will want this on their shoulderpiece.
Supporting Math
That’s about it for Typhon’s at the moment. If I think of other things, I’ll add them in later.
EDITs
- 3/7/2020: Initial Version.