Just my quick two cents, I posted this on another thread also.
The hydra wiz most definitely needs a buff. The new set is a huge let down and almost dead out of the gate. It doesn’t have enough toughness, not enough DPS after the nerf and Squirts being down. LoD hydra fits the play style much much better, with being able to maximize the potential of Hydra from a offensive and defensive side, especially more in season 20. I wouldn’t mind if LoD hydra was the go too, to be honest. Even tho that would leave the set in a even more terrible place.
I think the 6-piece of the set, should give you an extra hydra overall (3 total). It fits the build and would really bring fantasy to the build. It would also help solve the problem of the damage, more damage reduction( more Squirts uptime) and would help more with monster targeting and other mechanical flaws hydras do have. But maybe this would cause server lag and wouldn’t work out anyways. But would be better then just increasing a number for the 6-piece set. Last thing, I think the hydra set could use there own Source, it opens up some better options that would help the set more with item choices ( Don’t have to use RoRG) and not effect LoD for the most part. Maybe rolls 125%-150% Hydra Damage on secondary affix or one of the main affix’s with Intel/Crit Chance automatically, then RNG from there? Just a few ideas. Either way, weather it’s the set, LoD or both…Hydra needs buffed up a bit. Not overkill, but needs to compete better.
Am really happy with Traveler’s instead of squirts, while CoE loss is significant, I don’t think it’s that bad compared to the extra toughness when moving (herding density) and no worries of losing 100% dmg buff like with squirts.
Obv is way harder to get a good rolled ancient, and ring is even more painful to get with some decent offensive stats, but it’s worth it IMHO.
Echoing Fury is such a huge boost to hydra, honestly the theme is what’s keeping hydra strong right now, once season is over we’ll truly see how mediocre it is. For now though, very nice options with seasonal theme for hydra…I’d argue better than any other wizard build really albeit Vyr’s speeds. Can’t touch Reaver+inGeom+EF on Chants speeds…one piece away can’t wait lol.
I’m hoping after the seasonal theme is done and we go into next patch there will be more hydra buffs. This would be okay really as the theme carries for now.
Wacha talking about? Am beating Vyr’s in speed consistently with TV. Also cleared 110 with 815 paragon no augs, couple ancients (but nothing to write home about).
Can do 100 in about 3-4 mins (depending on maps, obv open map is faster, caves / barracks slower). Hydra still needs buffs, but it’s not unplayable <3
Oh yah hydra can be fast, pop a frost hydra down with EF and keels everything, don’t get me wrong! Also hydras definitely caught us up with speed before a fully decked Vyrs. But there’s still no way you can beat a Vyr’s speed build with Reaver/EF/InGeom or push with CC. You should try it!
I don’t use EF at all. Actually am not even using DW, running Aether scepter or w/e the name (no cd on teleport) no ancient 2k dmg just for the speed, and nemesis in cube instead of tasker.
Dropping hydra instantly kills non elite mobs, 4-5s to kill normal elite pack (no jugger / shielding) if I channel, stuff just blows (and can teleport and spawn 1 hydra while channeling, only getting ES + taeguk bonuses since no DW).
Archon has downtime when you need to recharge and get 20 stacks, hydra TV has none, you just zip around the map popping stuff as you go lol it’s hilarious (and you don’t die, 140m toughness for T16 is enough) ----> this at 800 paragon ofc.
I believe the secret to unlocking TV potential is reaching next BP for frost hydra APS (with my current setup I need 10% more IaS on gear for it, which should result in 24% dps increase according to d3planner) which means I just need either 2 rings with AS or 1 ring and another DW (for pushing / 4p) with AS on it.
Sadly we are stuck at 40% elemental 45% hydra dmg for set, but that’s still very good. While 45%ish ChC may seem low, it’s actually not given the APS of hydra and 10 heads firing several times a second, it’s not like meteorshower LoD where your meteors only drop every other second (cause of ES channel) where you wanted 60%+ ChC to get most out of your meteors that actually hit targets.
I mean NS with 1.7k paragon I cleared 116, now in season I did 110 with 800 paragon and way worse gear (no augs either), difference being affixes I wanted this time around on pieces and reaching the breakpoint for hydra APS.
Don’t get me wrong, I STILL WANT them to buff 6pc to 2000% head (And they better!), but it’s not so bad as we tought it was for “casual play”.
Ding ding
You’ll murder stuff! This is what I’ve already tested on PTR, when you know…we had proper SS/Magistrate buffs (450%)
Glad to hear it’s working out for you, indeed it’s pretty solid for casual play but will will not see it near the top of the leaderboards which is a shame. Like I said though if you’re in between Vyrs and gearing LoD ancients, it’s the perfect transition, especially for group play.
You know I’m really digging yours and Lexa’s attack speed idea instead if you think about it it is pretty much at 20,000% anyway (13000 + 8580 [66% extra head damage]) = 21850 which is not enough.
So by giving it 50% more attack speed (I say double though) on the 2pc you not only increase damage by another 66 to potentially at the last BP 200% more, but you free up gearing options. It will never be as free as LoD, but at least this way it will not suck when theme is over.
Because once the theme is over, it’s really going to rear it’s ugly head how limiting it is.
You need 1 weapon cubed (DW or SS), tasker or magistrate cubed, and RoRG or Karini cubed.
RoRG is mandatory. Karini too (you need that toughness). SS is what makes TV set work with the extra hydra. DW is a great multiplier (as you will spend a lot of time channeling) you could give it up for EF but am not sure how practical that would be (plus it would reduce your DPS on RG), tasker is mandatory as well.
I don’t think we will see AS increase on set. If it happens, it will sort of break the game, as TV with arcane hydra will be the king RGK beating even the crusader (the speed at which they will stack stricken will be insane, 10 projectiles 3 times / second) and arcane already has super APS compared to frost.
I would be highly surprised if by end of this month they don’t do anything regarding TV (and / or SS & Magistrate), it’s blatantly obvious that WD surpasses by a large margin TV.
Jez TV limiting gear even with theme lol, sorry forgot, you’re right. That’s probably why I had PE in use to begin with…right.
EDIT: Wait no wrong, you can fit it in! See post below:
Nothing wrong at all with 10 aps hydras! So what 10 heads, 10 attacks, 100 attacks a second? It’s perfect, it’s amazing! You must cross over Anelyn, join us…we won’t tell the Crusaders of what you’ve helped bring to life!!
Wait what do you mean? You can use EF? You just can’t reverse archon which isn’t ideal for TV anyway since you cannot use Illusory boots. You can drop blackhole for teleport, but BH is such a good modifier that’s not ideal.
But here’s what Reverse Archon ToV Arcane Hydra group looks like if you add teleport since no Illusory boots, not bad…not great either (LoD Mammoths will do 3x this on CoE Fire cycle, yes counting arcane attunement stacks which is just lol…) https://www.d3planner.com/705916763
No I mean I can’t fit EF in. And PE is not great either since it only procs of your own critical attacks, not from hydras, so you get stacks very slowly since you use a single target channel spell as your only attack.
Plus EF only works if you are killing stuff relatively fast to keep it fueled, if it takes you 10s+ to kill trash mobs in density then I fail to see how EF will help (Correct me if am wrong on this).
I really want to see some vids of TV / LoD RGK before I become a believer tho ^^
This is not true, the pets do proc it but only for themselves, meaning your critical hits from channeling will not stack to theirs, but it does work.
You’re correct, that’s why you do not use it for solo. PE and EF is for group set ups. Plus you’d be pretty screwed on the RG by yourself with those. Well unless you’re fishing for GG Hamelin timing lol.
Well that is odd, because pets attacking will not show the bleeding icon over mobs heads like it does when I do so it is either bugged or not working haha
Really? Assumed this hadn’t been changed since last tested pets did trigger both bleed and haste effect, hmm. Perhaps just not the visual but it applies.
It’s easy to test, go in a high GR where your hydras need 30s+ to kill trash, and check TTK with pain enhancer and without (don’t channel, just let hydras dps, if you channel you will proc PE which will increase your AS and buff hydras too).
@cratic and everyone thank you for all your work and math. I am not a math guy so I appreciate the math guys in life. I was able to bungle my way past a gr 112 in the LOD mammoth but as lower paragon player right now I am digging the typhon. I am a miser when it comes to caldesann because I hate leveling gems. Presently the typhon passed a 109 with 8 minutes to spare changing to Taeguk.
Going to see how high I can go before augmenting items and also need to get a better rolled deathwish (it’s primal but that’s about it). I had a good serpent sparker but yeah got happy with salvage and its gone.
Thank you again. WIll take my lemons and make lemonade.
I wish I could Anelyn. I did get a nice Serpent Sparker from Rngesus. I cleared a 108 with Typhon in season with a decent amount of time to spare. As you have said in other posts the RG takes time at the end. I hope they look at the suggestions everyone has posted.
Off topic do we know who the successor to Nevalist will be? Interesting times everywhere right now. I have never had so much time to play. I am also balancing time with family as much as I can in order to make sure I am not a cause of anyone’s infection.
Back on topic thanks again for everyone’s hard work. I am a converted Wiz. I like the laziness of this set at times. Necro used to be my favorite. Even with a new set incoming I dig this playstyle.
Been using my tempest monk to level the gems since they share except for pet gem.
Here’s a build to consider for more casual group arcane Typhon’s. It gives it a bit more toughness and damage w/o relying on reverse archon, which would either take away damage modifier of black hole or the mobility of teleport. Plus you’re not CDR dependent, so that frees up gearing constraints. Adding in CoE doesn’t give much overall benefit compared to Aughilds.
You lose a bit on trash but usually that’s overkill once you start gearing AD anyhow for arcane hydras. The mitigation is likely better and safer, at least plus the builds weakness tends to be elites which it will do extra damage toward. Something to try out at least, I’m gonna give it a go since I’m far away from my LoD Reverse Archon gearing.
(450%)
