Would it be beneficial to run Typhons Hydra set for longer in the early stages (even once you have the Tals pieces) to maximise loot / hour? OR is the GR limit too low for hydra?
It’s a bit on the low side with Aether Walker.
And without, there’s no real good reason to run hydras over the full Tal’s build, speedwise they end up about the same, if not a little faster with Tal’s because of the teleport resets from Tal’s 4p.
Personally, I’ll probably transition to Tal’s with Aether Walker and run mid tier speeds with that for a while at the start of the season until I have most slots ancient. Tal’s with Aether Walker is a bit slower than Typhon’s with Aether Walker, but Tal’s can run a bit higher. I think Tal’s with Aether Walker is a bit of a better balance of loot vs. XP.
Typhon’s with Aether Walker = maximum loot
Tal’s with Aether Walker = medium loot, medium XP
Tal’s with Smoldering Core = maximum XP
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Ok so it sounds like the best bet is most likely to transition out of hydra as soon as you have all the necessary components for Tals then?
That’s not unreasonable.
Hello guys! So i wanted to start with dh but after nats build i won’t… So my other 2 options are wizard or monk. I really like super fast builds for farming Bounties, keys and gem leveling (played GoD and Innas a lot). I really like the Wizard and want to try the Tal rasha build, but how about wizards fast farming builds? Is the Hydra build fast enough for someone who likes fast farming or will i get bored? I could go Monk but i read that WoL is a hard to get build and quite difficult to play. Thanks in advance!
For bounties, nothing is even close to the same tier as Inna6/Raiment4 Infinite Dash Water Ally.
Bounties/T16 rifts it goes: Inna6/Raiment 4 >> GoD/UE > Hydra etc.
For super speed GRs, wizard also just can’t match the DH and monk builds. Even Typhon with Aether Walker can’t quite match the top end speed of GoD/UE/WoL etc.
DH and monk are just better at those 60-90 second GRs. Wizard ends up more like 90-120 seconds.
Tal’s is a great solo speedfarming build, but you run slower and higher tiers for really good XP.
Wizards just don’t really have any solo speed GR builds that can match the top end speed of DH or monk on intermediate GR tiers.
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Since almost all of your damage comes from your Hydras how does that work? Do you keep dropping Hydras? Do you buff them (with Arcane Dynamo passive)? Cast Blizzard? Perhaps there’s a good video of the play style? Sadly I find Typhon’s a reliably tanky but slow build – at least the way I play it. I’d love to find another option than Aether Tal’s for speed farming.
Stacking Arcane Dynamo is too slow for speeds. You drop it for a different passive. Astral Presence is nice to keep your Arcane Power up for all that teleporting with Aether Walker.
In T16 I generally don’t bother casting Blizzard except on the RG and maybe the odd elite. You don’t need the damage from Blizzard to kill stuff on T16, Typhon’s 6p + Serpent’s Sparker + Magistrate is more than enough.
For GR speeds, you’ll want to cast Blizzard more frequently for the extra damage. That’s a big reason why Typhon’s is a great T16 build but starts to drop off in GR speeds above a certain tier, because you need a bit of setup time to kill stuff vs. something like GoD or UE that just blasts everything instantly. It’s not too bad on lower tiers (e.g. GR90) where you can at least kill trash without Blizzards and only need to cast Blizzards on elites, but it starts to really fall behind on 110+. You can drop Aether Walker at that point to pick up Fragment of Destiny for some extra damage, but then it slows down a lot, and Tal’s ends up just straight up better for 110+ (and especially 120+).
I could maybe record a couple T16 rifts and GR90/GR100/GR110 speeds tonight as a quick playstyle demo.
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I saw the video you posted in another thread… I’ve been trying it out in HC and it’s amazing. No problem at all doing T16 bounties/Neph’s but my current set up is struggling a bit around GR85. With a few tweaks to my gear and some practice I’m sure it’ll be good to GR90. Thanks very much… Looks like I’m going to be having a blast playing wizard this season.
You and me both 
Okay, here’s some example Typhon’s runs (plus a couple Tal’s w/ Aether Walker) I recorded if you want to see the playstyle and speed. (quality might be kinda low until youtube finishes processing the higher resolution version, depending on when you see this post)
2x T16 rifts Typhon’s with Aether Walker:
2x GR90, 2x GR100, 2x GR110 Typhon’s with Aether Walker:
And for comparison, here’s 2x GR110 with Tal’s with Aether Walker:
I know it’s only a couple rifts each, but you get the idea. The Typhon’s T16 rifts and GR90 runs are blazing fast, but I start to slow down noticeably in GR110. You’ll notice I cast Blizzard a lot more in GR110 and stand around to wait for stuff to die, whereas in T16 and GR90 I just drop hydras and keep moving.
Typhon’s is noticeably faster for GR90, but Tal’s is a decent bit faster in GR110.
| Tier | Build | Times |
|---|---|---|
| GR90 | Typhon | 1:13, 1:26 |
| GR100 | Typhon | 1:58, 1:41 |
| GR110 | Typhon | 2:15, 2:46 |
| GR110 | Tal’s | 2:03, 1:44 |
The actual tier you’ll be running in S28 will vary a bit depending on your paragon/S28 buffs etc., but I think the trend will stay the same. Typhon’s is faster for GR90-100, Tal’s is faster for GR110-120+.
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You’re a champ Tinne! 
Presumably by the same logic, hydra would be our go to bounty build then?
Oh yeah, 100%.
Being able to drop hydras and keep moving while they kill stuff as you move makes it really good for bounties too.
So something’s come up in S28 that may affect the equation a bit for Typhon’s vs. Tal’s speeds:
pet kills (including hydras) don’t trigger the +1 orb from the Altar.
This does improve Tal’s a bit by comparison for GR90 speeds, since Tal’s gets an extra orb per elite kill and Typhon’s does not. I’ve been running GR90s with Tal’s Lightning Meteors with Aether Walker.
That’s insane! Shouldn’t it be posted in the bug forum? There is already a topic about the extra orbs not showing. I couldn’t see the extra orbs playing Typhon’s (and I haven’t really looked closely when playing Tal’s), but some say that the extra orbs are just hard to notice.
Other builds will suffer from this too. (Marauder?).
There’s already been a couple posts about it, this one specifically mentions hydra:
And yeah, Inna’s Mystic Ally, LoD Wave of Light, Marauder’s all suffer too.
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Should it be posted in general discussion to alert all players?
BTW; with auto orb pickup unlocked it’s hard to see the exact number of them anymore.
It’s easier to test on yellows. You don’t get the bonus orb until you kill all the minions, and it spawns on you instead of the enemy. Kill the main yellow, collect all the orbs, then kill a minion at range and see if you get the extra orb or not.
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I have to say, I checked F&R after reading your post and it’s so much better than other combinations for 115-120s with lightning meteor.
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I use hydras for bounties and keys. With aether walker and serpent sparker. Don’t need all the damage and the huge mobility of aether walker makes it one of the fastest in the game. Bad maps become almost a non-factor if you can teleport permanently. Another small detail is in bounties when you need to teleport out to another area, just place your hydras where you stand and most of the time nothing can come near you and interrupt you. Same thing with those bounties that you need to free a prisoner, for example, where you need to stand still and channel for a few seconds. It can save you a couple of seconds from these annoying enemies that land on you and interrupt your channeling. By the way, with the exact same setup doing GR105 in 2 minutes is a piece of cake. For GR110+ you get rid of the aether walker and cube the fragment of destiny. Again 2 minutes is an average clear time. Tal is way stronger if you decide to farm high GRs. I am doing 4 minutes GR130 easily. Whereas with Typhon hydras I need double the time to clear a GR130, but with worse gear.