LoD Hydra Wizard

[Valks 2,373]

This thread is for feedback on our LoD Hydra Wizard build.

[Guest Puch]

What's the reasoning behind the Swamp Land Waders? Is it only for the extra fire damage boost? I didn't see a blurb on it in the Gear portion of the guide so I was wondering if there were other alternatives.

[Guest Guy]

2nd on swamp land waders. its a WD only drop so makes no sense in this build.

[Yolo 40]

On 3/14/2020 at 7:44 PM, Guest Puch said:

What's the reasoning behind the Swamp Land Waders? Is it only for the extra fire damage boost? I didn't see a blurb on it in the Gear portion of the guide so I was wondering if there were other alternatives.

 

7 hours ago, Guest Guy said:

2nd on swamp land waders. its a WD only drop so makes no sense in this build.

It's only for the fire damage increase, yes. The reasoning behind it is, that there are no pants in the game that increase damage output except for primary skills, and and it's BiS for any LoD build that does not rely on Primary skills. Any well rolled ancient Pants are good alternative. Also, leveling up a witch Doctor to 50 for the pants to gamble at kadala is miniscule compared to the dedication a full ancient LoD gear requires. 

[Guest Daedrac]

This build is soo strong it crashes my computer

[Mefisto 0]

At paragon 669, LoD gem level 68 with 5 ancients I'm getting owned at GR 80 while the typhon hydra build pretty much cruises through GR 95 so far. Am I correct in concluding this build only works with all ancients and a maxed out LoD gem?

[Razorback 0]

I'm working on this build right now, and it's a great starting place. I have a few ideas though, and I'd like to hear what you think of them.

Passives: It's not taking advantage of the Season 20 buff at all. Since we're using the Magistrate, it's a good place to use Rimeheart. With that hat and the Hydras constantly freezing targets over and over, this is a good time to break it out. Maybe drop the Stone Gauntlets passive in place for it. As for Halo of Karini, that's a very solid defensive option. I wouldn't recommend changing it, but if you really want to go for 3/3 weapon slots, The Furnace is always a winner.

Amulet: There is *ALOT* of fire on the ground. It makes it hard to tell apart what your Hydras are doing vs. what elite packs are trying to do to you. Squirt's Necklace comes with both punch and vulnerability. Trade it out for The Star of Azkaranth as a possible alternative?

One question I have is how are you keeping your mana built up? Right now I have all my powers set to fire-runes to get the best use out of Cindercoat. (Haven't found the Aquila Cuirass yet). I was considering changing out the Witching Hour for Hergbrash's Binding to stay fully charged. (Again, still looking for both items anyways). As a consequence, I'm not using the Elemental Exposure skill passive just yet.

I have a couple other thoughts, but I want to play the build more before I go on with them. So far I have it about half assembled and I'm already ripping through T10!

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by Razorback
Text color error. A good chunk was black-on-black.

[Yolo 40]

On 3/22/2020 at 12:39 AM, Razorback said:

I'm working on this build right now, and it's a great starting place. I have a few ideas though, and I'd like to hear what you think of them.

Passives: It's not taking advantage of the Season 20 buff at all. Since we're using the Magistrate, it's a good place to use Rimeheart. With that hat and the Hydras constantly freezing targets over and over, this is a good time to break it out. Maybe drop the Stone Gauntlets passive in place for it. As for Halo of Karini, that's a very solid defensive option. I wouldn't recommend changing it, but if you really want to go for 3/3 weapon slots, The Furnace is always a winner.

Amulet: There is *ALOT* of fire on the ground. It makes it hard to tell apart what your Hydras are doing vs. what elite packs are trying to do to you. Squirt's Necklace comes with both punch and vulnerability. Trade it out for The Star of Azkaranth as a possible alternative?

One question I have is how are you keeping your mana built up? Right now I have all my powers set to fire-runes to get the best use out of Cindercoat. (Haven't found the Aquila Cuirass yet). I was considering changing out the Witching Hour for Hergbrash's Binding to stay fully charged. (Again, still looking for both items anyways). As a consequence, I'm not using the Elemental Exposure skill passive just yet.

I have a couple other thoughts, but I want to play the build more before I go on with them. So far I have it about half assembled and I'm already ripping through T10!

 

"Mana" is built up by Arcane Torrent - Static discharge (which hits lots of enemies) and rolling Arcane Power on Crit on the off hand. 

[Savathar 0]

Cube ideas for season 20?

[Guest Choup]

Hello,

I have two questions regarding this pretty cool set-up:

• at start, before gr100, isn't Bane of the powerful better than Enforcer ? You get +35% to elite on all of your spells which is more than the enforcer, of the bane of the powerful does apply only to your damage and not the one of your hydras?
• I don't understand why you go with a 4 different elements spec and not a simple full fire spec, with fire disintegrate and a fire black hole? This would allow to wear 3-4 +fire items and be better I would say

Thanks for inputs :)

Choup

[LukasMinus 0]

On 3/21/2020 at 8:41 PM, Mefisto said:

At paragon 669, LoD gem level 68 with 5 ancients I'm getting owned at GR 80 while the typhon hydra build pretty much cruises through GR 95 so far. Am I correct in concluding this build only works with all ancients and a maxed out LoD gem?

Well, i am no expert in any sense on this, but i can give you feedback on my playing by now with this build. I switched very early in the season to this build (my third or forth gem was the LoD gem) and it worked quite well from the start. 

As far i experienced and felt this build, you dont need any ancients legendarys to start playing this build. Just have "normal" legendarys and hope to get the right ones with good effects (the ones recommendes in this guide). I have just one ancient by now (some random legs bc the recommended ones are not that easy to obtain for a casual player). In fact i started playing with the LoD effect from gr 20 on and i am now at gr 93 and the dmg und mitigation is superb in my feeling.

Most important in my opinion are for dmg the items which boosts hydra (including Tasker and Theos hands!) and for defense the ring and the chest. But i think dmg will be overwhelming at the start nevertheless bc of LoD bonus. Later the multiplyers by channeling will be very important and leveling the gems of course.

Remember this is all written by a casual amateur player, but i think this relates to many people having the same question or experience like you and me.

Just equip the LoD gem and all legendary with reasonable good effects and this will push you quite far in GR i think. Worked for me and i am playing maybe 1 hour a day. This should be a very competitive build for more dedicated players.

greetings

 

[Savathar 0]

On 3/18/2020 at 12:02 AM, Yolo said:

 

It's only for the fire damage increase, yes. The reasoning behind it is, that there are no pants in the game that increase damage output except for primary skills, and and it's BiS for any LoD build that does not rely on Primary skills. Any well rolled ancient Pants are good alternative. Also, leveling up a witch Doctor to 50 for the pants to gamble at kadala is miniscule compared to the dedication a full ancient LoD gear requires. 

+Fire skill dmg is not even listed as an option under Stat Priority...

[Guest Spark]

For Season 20 it's possible to add a significant damage boost to the channeling Hydra build: Add meteor!

Summon Hydras manually, start channeling. Get one free Meteor every second (can be same element, or different, I'm running double cold). Occasionally Edged Sigil mixes in Black Hole.

Cube: Serpent Sparker|Deathwish + Grand Vizier + Whatever

Swap boots to Nilfur's Boast.

That's it.

Tasker & Magistrate don't interfere with Meteor.

In normal play this isn't possible because you can't fit Grand Vizier in.

The downside is that it's more fragile. No space for Stone Gauntlets/Ice Climbers combo. Also need to choose between losing Magic Weapon, Teleport & Black Hole. I've experimented and Magic Weapon seems to be easiest to lose.

[cyberloner 0]

On 3/18/2020 at 4:01 AM, Guest Guy said:

2nd on swamp land waders. its a WD only drop so makes no sense in this build.

Stone Gauntlets too

[Caseydraco 2]

Stone Gauntlets are needed. They are damage reduction for physical damage.With Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer and Galvanizing Ward up it just means that physical monsters don't hit us as bad since mages are squishy. It also helps keep Squirt's Necklace damage we take more reasonable. Lastly with Ice Climbers we are not hindered by the Stone Gauntlets attack and movement debuff

[Yolo 40]

On 4/13/2020 at 12:09 AM, Caseydraco said:

Stone Gauntlets are needed. They are damage reduction for physical damage.With Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer and Galvanizing Ward up it just means that physical monsters don't hit us as bad since mages are squishy. It also helps keep Squirt's Necklace damage we take more reasonable. Lastly with Ice Climbers we are not hindered by the Stone Gauntlets attack and movement debuff

In D3, armor reduces damage taken from all sources. Also, due to the fact that Intellect increases resistance to all elements by 0.1 per point, increasing armor is better, especially at high paragon, for toughness. 

[Caseydraco 2]

1 hour ago, Yolo said:

In D3, armor reduces damage taken from all sources. Also, due to the fact that Intellect increases resistance to all elements by 0.1 per point, increasing armor is better, especially at high paragon, for toughness. 

Thanks for letting me know that I was talking out of my Gluteus maximus and I will remember this when it comes up again ?

[Guest Salwey]

I cruised through  the GR80s with this build. hit my wall today at GR90. Im missing a couple items, hopefully they make the difference once found. LoD is at level 89, and definitely packs a punch, but i feel like im at the end of where this build will take me without some crazy rng item improvements. I still feel extremely squishy, even tried tuning all of my 710 paragon points into Vitality, with no intelligence. maybe Im just not doing enough damage as a result when i do that.

also not sold on enforcer. might be time to switch to bane of the stricken as elite packs seem to be what slow me down greatly (and so many deaths)

[Guest Salwey]

On 4/15/2020 at 1:06 AM, Guest Salwey said:

I cruised through  the GR80s with this build. hit my wall today at GR90. Im missing a couple items, hopefully they make the difference once found. LoD is at level 89, and definitely packs a punch, but i feel like im at the end of where this build will take me without some crazy rng item improvements. I still feel extremely squishy, even tried tuning all of my 710 paragon points into Vitality, with no intelligence. maybe Im just not doing enough damage as a result when i do that.

also not sold on enforcer. might be time to switch to bane of the stricken as elite packs seem to be what slow me down greatly (and so many deaths)

switched go a more glass cannon build, moved all paragon points to int, no vitality. pushed to GR94 last night. quite a few more paragon levels pumped into that as well. still looking for an amulet with a socket so i can run with 3rd legendary gem, i imagine that'll make things a little smoother

[Guest tibob]

I'm playing this build and it's awsome.I've like 8 variations of it for various situations. I've done a GR 112 using the exact build found here around paragon 900.About enforcer, I found something recently. Bane of the trapped increase damage by the same % than enforcer but on ALL damage instead of just Hydra and they proc the gem with their free cast of frost nova.It give a slight boost to damage enough to climb 1-2 GR levels.

[Guest Alpha]

for myself I love this build..personally I am used to being squishy so it suits me.

Currently at Paragon 670 with maybe 5 ancients, LoD at 80 as is Enforcer..Taeguk needs work.

I run non spec pants and have never seen stone Gauntlets so I use thunderfury in cube slot to replace them.

as far as skills I personally do not use Teleport but replace it with Familiar and use that to regen power which allows me to pretty much permacast Arcane Torrent. this keeps primary power above the required % for the defensive boost on one of the items I wear (Forget which.i am at work).

Generally I can blast Torment 16 rifts and have managed up to GR 85.

Still a work in progress

 

 

[Guest Alpha]

oh further points. with Serpent sparker you have 2 Hydra, I utilize them in a basic paired fire and maneuver system,keep them stakkered up narrow pathways or widen them out to create acrossfire in more space..basic combat tactics

 

[Guest Alpha]

Apologies for any spelling or syntax errors,.this keyboard is nearly as old as I am

[Guest Salwey]

On 3/21/2020 at 6:39 PM, Razorback said:

I'm working on this build right now, and it's a great starting place. I have a few ideas though, and I'd like to hear what you think of them.

Passives: It's not taking advantage of the Season 20 buff at all. Since we're using the Magistrate, it's a good place to use Rimeheart. With that hat and the Hydras constantly freezing targets over and over, this is a good time to break it out. Maybe drop the Stone Gauntlets passive in place for it. As for Halo of Karini, that's a very solid defensive option. I wouldn't recommend changing it, but if you really want to go for 3/3 weapon slots, The Furnace is always a winner.

Amulet: There is *ALOT* of fire on the ground. It makes it hard to tell apart what your Hydras are doing vs. what elite packs are trying to do to you. Squirt's Necklace comes with both punch and vulnerability. Trade it out for The Star of Azkaranth as a possible alternative?

One question I have is how are you keeping your mana built up? Right now I have all my powers set to fire-runes to get the best use out of Cindercoat. (Haven't found the Aquila Cuirass yet). I was considering changing out the Witching Hour for Hergbrash's Binding to stay fully charged. (Again, still looking for both items anyways). As a consequence, I'm not using the Elemental Exposure skill passive just yet.

I have a couple other thoughts, but I want to play the build more before I go on with them. So far I have it about half assembled and I'm already ripping through T10!

 

I'm actually running this build with an ancient Hergbrash's Binding for the same reasons you describe. I having the Witching Hour as well, but find myself not low, but not high enough in resources to keep Aquilla activated. As I've just recently cleared GR100, I'm finding I need that additional toughness more and more these days and the extra fire power doesnt outweigh the added toughness. Up to now I hadnt been using Caldesann's Despair... ever (didnt even know what it was) so I've been focusing on getting some random gems as close to 100 and throwing them in gear I feel I'll be holding onto for a while to make up for the lost damage from dropping Witching Hour from the build. 

I also toyed with Rimeheart but havent found the results to be conclusive.. rifts were no more fluid, bosses unlikely to care. Seems like after the initial round of freezing, bosses are becoming immune to hydras? makes sense.. not like theyd let us perma freeze things. 

I feel like a boss in this build. If anything I'd say Im still a tad squishy but hey.. im a Wizard what do I expect? Prior to getting serious about builds (circa 1 month ago) I ran as more of a tanky wizard with high toughness and medium damage, so my expectations on living probably need adjusting.  That said, the majority of time i dont die or die to poison, damage is high, and I can do empowered rift 97s with no fear of not upgrading gems (maybe even higher, i havent tried.. just grinding for Caldesanns atm). It sure doesnt hurt with paragon levels either (up to 872 now, up ~300 in the last month)

 

[Guest OESSH]

I am only missing about 4 items in this build. I cleared GR 70 solo. My damage out put make it really easy but i can get 1 shot killed about 6 times during GR.What can i do to help that.