So the offhand for hydra is now cold skill dependent. This mean LoD hydra is gone? I don’t see the cold hydra in LoD being as powerful as the set now.
What do you mean? You know Blizzard has other runes that aren’t cold based, and being cold has nothing to do with the bonus besides the extra freeze proc; the off-hand gives all hydra damage.
You can cast a Blizzard then continue to channel with Deathwish, Blizzard lasts quite awhile.
But I don’t see why you’d want to channel though other than Channeling Mantle which don’t have a delay anymore. Flame Blades + Fragment (4x hydra mod) + Winter Flurry >> Deathwish+Mantle+ Old Etched Sigil.
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My brain didn’t process on the whole fire skill thing, not sure what I was going for actually on my OP 
. I dont know what you mean by the 4x hydra from fragment. It’s a 250-300% damage boost. I was in a hurry when I typed this while being distracted by my little one, Forgive the ignorance I typed.
Lol no need to apologize that’s totally me most times! I’m not the hardcore 2k hour wizard I once was, I’m always stumbling over what I can remember and have hardly played one this year. I can’t wait to get back into it!
Back on subject, yes 4x mod I mean - 300% is 4x modifier. Deathwish is 325% so 4.25x mod.
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Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the info!
Except in s22 you want to channel AND cast Blizzard. Makes for very awkward gameplay. Also, Arcane Dynamo with FoD is significant.
Indeed. I actually only played LoD hydra because I wasn’t into casting or using 5 different spells just to buff a main one lol. So now they added another skill to use on top of hydra just to get damage buff. Will probably skip wizard play going forward…at least I got to rank 20ish this seas.
Oh you’re talking about that will be possible with the 4th cube slot, gotcha. Hmm, that does make things complicated. Can’t exactly get away from channeling if you’re giving us a 4th slot without compensation.
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Yeah, you’ve had to use Frost Hydra, a channeling spell, Storm Armor, Blizzard, and a signature spell and Teleport. The only choices you’d get would be literally the runes you pick - and only of a few of those. And the gameplay would be Hydra, Hydra, Blizzard, signature spell x5, hydra, signature spell x5, channel while trying to keep up Blizzard.
Very awkward gameplay, something I am trying to get adjusted by switching Blizzard to Frost Nova.
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Well what I’m hoping then is that it’s either one or the other , so unfortunately that means the new “Spectral stacks” need to be something you need to maintain constantly so you don’t have time to channel so FoD + DW won’t even be viable.
I want that 4th slot to actually be something to think about and not force a channeling item like a Star Pact mess, however I don’t want channeling to be killed outright forever like Star Pact.
Seems like we’re just killing more things off than making more variety here. Seems kind of strange to just have ET as channeling viable.
Yeah, more than likely I will be avoiding wizard next season like I have for most of the time lol. Was never into all the stacking/pushing the right skill at the right time mechanics. Why I played soo much LoD hydra this season after I tried it…loved the more relaxed style with tankiness.
Same. I hate Vyr and DMO, and with Tal Rasha close to useless and Firebird being on the same level as Blackthornes, they are very close to making me stop playing wizard. I shall look into LoD with Arcane Orb a bit but this might very well become my first season without even considering to go for wizard.
Yeah firebirds is…something alright… never liked the idea of dragging elites around all the time. Unless they fix things (which is possible) before it goes live and/or wizard mains find something I’m missing, y’all will have very select build(s) viable.
The only silver lining for me (and I may have just jinxed it), is that they haven’t touched Vyr set yet. So add that along with this upcoming seasonal theme, the Wizard class would still be playable for me.
The next theme with that may be a silver lining for many indeed. Noticed vyrs at the top on the NA seasonal LB over LoD hydra so it’s still capable it seems. I wouldn’t worry about it being touched. If it was, wild just be a buff like the other few sets got but doubt they’ll even do that.
Is this season 5 or 6 of Vyr? I want to try some ET.
I might try arcane orbit for at least t16 rifts. Was one in the past I actually played as it was a tanky up close build and now DMO will get a buff…
Quite honestly, I don’t mind playing more of vyr as that’s my favorite wizard set in the game. That said, I am happy that Valthek was buffed for Energy Twister (but that’s only because I want there to be more builds for wizards to have, not because I like energy twister which I honestly don’t), although the change to etched sigil was bad imo.
I dimly recall you might have been one of those people advocating for changes to ES. Are you happy now? 
I asked for changes to both Death Wish and Etched Sigil. The changes I asked for were as follow:
So to answer your question; I’m not happy as the changes we got thus far are nothing like I had hoped for. So honestly, I’m mostly disappointed.
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