LoD Mammoth Hydra Wizard BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points
Below, we detail the items and gems that you should use for your LoD Mammoth Hydra Wizard in Diablo 3 and why. We also list your paragon points and Kanai's Cube items. Updated for patch 2.6.10 and Season 22.
Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives
This Mammoth Hydra Wizard build is based on the Legacy of Dreams power, which offers significant flexibility when it comes to item choice. Stat-wise, focus on pieces where Hydra skill damage is a possible roll — shoulders, chest and source, as well as spreading Increased Attack Speed and especially Area Damage wherever possible.
The Legacy of Dreams power allows you to run any legendary item combination
while not losing out on the damage amplification and reduction associated with
the traditional 6-piece sets. You can obtain this power in two ways; the older
way is equipping the two rings — The Wailing Host and
Litany of the Undaunted — as your only active set bonus. The newer
(and more powerful, since it also opens your ring slots for legendary jewelry)
method is the
Legacy of Dreams legendary gem.
In a setup with Legacy of Dreams, you will be wearing your two best
rolled rings and cubing the third between
Convention of Elements,
Unity, and
Halo of Karini.
Convention of Elements simply
provides a massive damage increase during the Fire cycle of its rotation.
Halo of Karini will greatly supplement your defenses, providing a massive
damage reduction bonus for the modest requirement of keeping your
Storm Armor active.
Unity further reduces incoming damage when
paired with another on the follower, along with an immortality relic for him
(i.e.
Enchanting Favor). Note that if you are confident in your
survivability, you can viably alternate this slot to a Fire damage
Stone of Jordan.
Aside from Halo of Karini,
Squirt's Necklace will also incentivize
you to keep your distance from enemies — it rewards the evasive playstyle
of a Hydra summoner with a massive damage bonus, but also punishes the unwary
with an amplification of damage taken. To encase you in at least a measure of
protection before you lose that valuable DPS buff, you will be wearing the
Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer for the doubled shield potency
(consult this build's skills page to see where
the shields should come from). Note that you can viably alternate the bracer
slot to
Ancient Parthan Defenders, as the
Frost Novas cast by your
Hydras will count towards the Damage Reduction proc.
Two legendary items will be aimed squarely at amplifying the damage and
usefulness of your Hydra summons. Tasker and Theo is a valuable addition to
summoner-based builds due to its attack speed increase for pets, which acts as a
separate multiplier for their damage calculation.
The Magistrate on the
other hand is a dedicated
Hydra wizard hat, which adds a straightforward
damage multiplier to them and makes them periodically cast
Frost Nova,
adding some welcome safety to the build. Note that you can cube
The Magistrate and use a Fire damage
Andariel's Visage with
comparable success.
There is another dedicated Hydra legendary in the build — the
Serpent's Sparker. This wand doubles the number of
Hydras you
can have active at any time, and provides a massive skill damage increase on top.
As for your offhand, you will be using the dedicated
Winter Flurry source,
now reworked into a
Hydra-related piece; it retains its base
Frost Nova casting powers, but now has a sizable damage multiplier for
Hydras against enemies affected by
Blizzard.
Three more armor slots will be occupied by protective legendary powers, with
the combo of Ice Climbers,
Mantle of Channeling and
Aquila Cuirass each bringing their own angle of value to the build. Note
that your armor Cube slot will be occupied by
Stone Gauntlets — one
of the most effective protective pieces in the game, bumping your armor in 50%
increments as you get hit, but with a similarly stacking mobility penalty —
and that downside you will be completely negating with the unique property of
Ice Climbers, which make you immune to immobilization effects.
Mantle of Channeling is a build subtype staple, offering a substantial 25%
damage increase, along with an equal amount of damage reduction while channeling.
Aquila Cuirass is simply a defensive cornerstone, cutting incoming damage
in half if you maintain above 90% of your resource. There is a possible alteration
to the chest slot if you are confident in your survivability;
Cindercoat
is a respectable contender with its guaranteed Fire elemental damage
increase.
Introduced in Patch 2.4, The Shame of Delsere belt is an Arcane Power
regeneration powerhouse that speeds up your signature spells by 50% and restores
up to 12 AP per hit. This bonus will be vital in Greater Rift pushes in order to
maintain the damage reduction of a worn
Aquila Cuirass, as well as to
stack up the
Arcane Dynamo buff as quickly as possible.
Desired Stats, Breakpoints and Other Notes
For Offense stats, try to obtain Hydra % bonus on both the shoulders and chest (maximum of 30%), Fire elemental damage on both the amulet and wrists (maximum of 40%), Crit Chance and Crit Damage within a 1:10 ratio (ideally over 50% and 500%, respectively), and Area Damage of 100%+.
For Defense stats, aim for a life pool of 500k+; dropping as much as you can for offense as you grow accustomed to the build. You will mostly sustain through Life per Hit on gear, with at least one high roll in your setup (i.e. bracer).
All augmentations on gear should be done with your main stat, Intelligence.
Note that the stat suggestions below portray an ideally rolled item with stats listed in relative order of importance. The first four of them are main stats, and the latter two — secondary stats. If your item lacks and is unable to be rerolled into the primary stats outlined below, especially for a stat higher on the list, strongly consider its replacement. Perfecting Secondary stats is mostly a case of hyper-optimization and is not a case for discarding an item, except where noted.
Slot | Pieces | Stat Priority |
---|---|---|
Head |
|
|
Shoulders |
|
|
Torso |
|
|
Wrists |
|
|
Hands |
|
|
Waist |
|
|
Legs |
|
|
Feet |
|
|
Amulet |
|
|
Ring #1 |
|
|
Ring #2 |
|
|
Weapon |
|
|
Off-hand |
|
To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.
Paragon Points
In the Core section, max out Movement Speed to the 25% cap. Normally this is done by dumping the first 50 Core Paragon points into Movement Speed, but if your boots have an imperfect roll with Movement Speed as a stat that you cannot replace, adjust the necessary point investment accordingly by simply subtracting your roll from the 25% max. After that dump as much as you comfortably can into Intelligence, but feel free to invest into Vitality if you feel yourself lacking in toughness. Investing into Max Arcane Power should not be necessary.
In the Offense section, max out Crit Chance, Crit Damage, Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction in that order. In Defense, prioritize Armor, then Life %, then All Resistance, and finish off with Life Regeneration. In Utility, build up Area Damage and Life on Hit first, then finish off with Resource Cost Reduction and Globe Radius.
Slot | Paragon Points |
---|---|
Core |
|
Offense |
|
Defense |
|
Utility |
|
Gems
Enforcer is the gem meant to aid pet builds, and
Hydras
fall into this category for the benefits of this scaling, independent damage
multiplier.
Since this build relies on channeling skills to buff its spenders via the
Deathwish interaction, it makes sense to use the damage and toughness
amp hybrid of
Taeguk. In very high end Greater Rifts, you will have to
replace this gem with
Bane of the Stricken in order to efficiently tackle
the Rift Guardian fight.
Your final slot is best occupied by the Legacy of Dreams legendary gem,
which provides a scaling bonus for each legendary item equipped, as long as you
have no set bonuses equipped. This bonus is multiplied for Ancient or Primal
quality items, and when the gem is maxed out, it matches the Legacy of Nightmares
(
The Wailing Host and
Litany of the Undaunted rings) set bonus. This
potent bonus allows you to play around with all your gear slots for synergistic
legendary powers at the cost of a gem slot.
When it comes to gear gems, you will start out progression by slotting the
highest available level of Topazes in the chest and pants sockets. Ideally, these
will all be Flawless Royal Topazes as soon as possible. As you grow in
Paragon (bulking up Intelligence in the Core section) and aim for higher tier and
more dangerous GRs, you will transition those gems into the defensive
Flawless Royal Ruby, scaling the lacking Armor of an Intelligence-based
character (Intelligence scales Resistances). There is no specific breakpoint
where you do that; the rule of thumb is to make the change as soon as you feel
the lack of toughness impede your progress. Since this build is free of CDR
concerns, you can pick between
Flawless Royal Amethyst for the extra health
or
Flawless Royal Topaz for the Resource Cost Reduction as befits your needs
and playstyle. In your weapon, use a
Flawless Royal Emerald for the Crit
Damage boost.
Slot | Gems |
---|---|
Jewelry | |
Helm |
|
Torso and Pants |
|
Weapon |
For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.
Kanai's Cube
Tucked away in the cube, you have another Hydra-specific power: the
revised
Fragment of Destiny, which retains its signature spell attack speed
increase, but adds a stacking (up to 10 times) buff for
Hydras with each
subsequent attack. This plays into the
Arcane Dynamo playstyle quite
nicely, and forces you into a habit of pre-buffing your
Hydras before
placing them down.
You have some freedom to adapt to your needs in the armor Cube slot; in
general, this is the slot where you would place Stone Gauntlets (or
Tasker and Theo, depending on your better rolled item). If you deem the
combination of Aquila and Stone Gauntlets too defensive however, and want the
utility of, say, equipping
Illusory Boots, you can slot
Aquila Cuirass here and simply wear a
Cindercoat. Another option
is to slot
The Magistrate here and wear a Fire damage
Andariel's Visage. All of these options will produce very viable and
GR-push worthy results.
Your jewelry Cube slot will be occupied by your worst rolled item between
Halo of Karini,
Convention of Elements and
Unity.
In Season 22, you are still able to take advantage of the damage buff while
channeling from a cubed Deathwish.
The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.
Legendary Potion
The preferred potion for this build is Bottomless Potion of the Leech due
to its Life per Hit bonuses, which synergize perfectly for the high attack speed
and sustain-through-attacks playstyle of the build.
Follower
For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.
Changelog
- 20 Nov. 2020: Revision of item recommendations, alongside advice for Season 22 changes.
- 01 Jul. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
- 11 Mar. 2020: Guide added.
More Wizard Guides
Builds from Other Classes
Farming Guides
This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.
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