Honestly, the new hydra based set “The Tython’s Veil” is either boring or annoying and useless if it behaves as advertised, especially if the Deathwish/Etched Sigil/Mantle of Channeling nerf goes through.
- It works like Squirt’s Necklace, which drops immediately and repeatedly if you take even a whisper of damage. That means you’re focused not on damage but on maximizing damage shield uptime and strength or you just lose everything. That will be even worse for this set.
- It buffs nothing but Hydras. You can’t and won’t care about any other skill that will do next to zero damage to tougher enemies.
Come on…this is a horrible set with this horrible “try to avoid damage to get any power at all while avoiding casting anything but hydra”. You pretty much run around to avoid projectiles that can actually be dodged while spamming Diamond Skin/Enduring Skin at maximum cooldown reduction and maximum vitality(non-damage stat focus so it isn’t a paper wall), because it is the only potentially permanently maintainable rune option with this set, and spamming hydra to replace any 1 with missing heads, which only replaces the oldest so if the 2nd spawned hydra loses a head then you have to cast it twice to replace the 2nd spawned in order to fix that(unless this won’t ever happen, which is unlikely).
You need maxed out cooldown reduction on gear to maintain Diamond Skin which takes up valuable slots you could use for attack speed since everybody will use the remaining damage for crit chance and crit damage and skill/elemental damage and have no room left for attack speed which has a relatively low effect on this build’s damage but is about the only other stat that helps pet damage.
On a positive note:
I love the new damage buffs tacked onto the hydra legendaries, but they were needing that for a long time.
There are other legendaries with this same problem with none/small damage boost accompanying their utility oriented buff, such as the pitiful 40% damage buff on Orb of Infinite Depth or the non-existent damage buff on Jang’s Envelopment which slows enemies damaged by Black Hole which needs at least 1000% damage buff if you ask me since it is the only Black Hole based legendary.
Back to constructive criticism:
Unsurprisingly, the new set “The Tython’s Veil”, especially at maximum 10 thousand percent damage buff with 2 hydras for a total of 10 heads, is completely worse than either Legacy of Nightmares set or Legacy of Dreams gem which buffs EVERYTHING for 9750% constantly without unrealistic maintenance conditions. Legacy of Dreams even gets half that buff for just plain old legendary items, which is much easier to maintain and not bad at 4875% with no ancients.
Sets based on a single skill that only use and benefit that single only skill are just bad, especially when they are not easy to maintain that benefit without building to maximize another skill entirely which relies on completely useless wrong stats to the focused skill like cooldown reduction needed to keep up a buff constant to avoid losing a buff for a skill that doesn’t benefit from cooldown reduction at all.
This is also why Archon is such a pain to use, especially on console, because the items and stats required to make it as constant as possible, and actually viable, fill up every available gear slot so you can’t benefit from anything else outside Archon while the super short 20 second timer is very unforgiving. At least Archon has it’s own quickly ramping attack speed buff, with the Vyr set, to make up for this significantly and make it actually possible to use.
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As an aside:
Legacy of Dreams needs to max out at rank 50 like Boon of the Hoarder. These 2 gems are popular with everybody and meant to be used, not be “only endgame non-casual player exclusive”. The Legacy of Dreams gem already has that latter element anyway considering it is only max effective with all ancient legendary items and you still need the proper stats on those for your build which requires farming for re-rolling legendaries which can still downgrade to non-ancient.
The expectation to complete several level 90+ Greater Rifts to get the most out of this gem is asking far too much for this already grind-centric gem buff.
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I definitely would have preferred a set focused on Black Hole because it is already meant to be more active, has secondary utility and is completely amazing looking effects. All that would really need is a legendary item buff to cut the cooldown of Black Hole by enough so that it can be relatively spammed or cast every second by Etched Sigil with a relatively reasonable amount of cooldown reduction(or ideally none needed like how Teleport can have no cooldown with an item). This could be a very fun skill to use and focus on as our main damaging and utility skill in a build.
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Hydra is too niche an appeal.
The only reason it was ever a popular build at all was its interaction with the passive Paralysis and Manald Heal ring which interaction was then nerfed, so Hydra lost any popularity it had, and this new set will still not benefit that damage because “it only buffs hydra damage, period”.
This set was a poor design focus decision and even more badly implemented.
Edit:
As I saw in another thread, a set focusing not on Hydra but on Mirror Images combined with Black Hole would be amazing. I don’t mean adding Hydra spam to Mirror Image like past bugs but just making Mirror Images and Black Hole our main damaging skills with a much lower cooldown for Black Hole as well so it could be spammed somewhat so we can “enjoy the light-show”.
Edit 2:
Why do Monks get Inna’s Mantra set gaining a more reliable buff from all their completely mobile pets out that also affects all damage while Wizards get an unreliable buff to just their 2 immobile pets?
Just designing this set like that one would be a lot better, but Hydra is still niche and frankly not appealing.
