Typhon Frost Hydra Wizard Greater Rift Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Oct 23, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 33 comments
1.

Greater Rift Speed Farming

The Typhon Hydra Wizard can deal reasonably well with Greater Rift Speed Farming, mostly thanks to the near-autonomous damage output of the Hydra Hydras and the option to include Aether Walker Aether Walker in the lower tiers of GR farming. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.

During lower tier Greater Rift farming, the balance between defense, damage and utility can be shifted to favor the latter two aspects of character building.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Spectral Blade Icon Spectral Blade Barrier Blades Barrier Blades Right Mouse Button Hydra Icon Hydra Frost Hydra Frost Hydra 1 Teleport Icon Teleport Wormhole Wormhole 2 Blizzard Icon Blizzard Apocalypse Apocalypse 3 Black Hole Icon Black Hole Absolute Zero Absolute Zero 4 Storm Armor Icon Storm Armor Scramble Scramble
Passive Skills
2.

Adapting Rotation

When you are Speed Farming Greater Rifts, your playstyle should at least partially reflect the circumstances by focusing on massive pulls, generic bonuses against enemies and chaining pylon effects.

You will maintain the vast majority of your GR progression rotation; Storm Armor Storm Armor should be activated as soon as you enter the Rift to enable the Halo of Karini Halo of Karini procs, and you should summon two Hydra Hydras to kickstart the Typhon 4-piece set bonus protection. Maneuver throughout the Rift with Teleport Teleport as much as possible, drawing enemy attention and building up big fights with aggroing casts of Spectral Blade Spectral Blade. This will also serve to stack up your Arcane Dynamo Arcane Dynamo, and you need to make sure you have built up its Flashes of Insight prior to casting Hydra Hydras and obliterating the screen from enemies. Another helpful damage buff will come from Winter Flurry Winter Flurry, so make sure to spread Blizzard Blizzard over the heads of enemies targeted by the Hydra Hydras. Keep up the GR progression strategy of trying to force fights in close quarters and casting Hydra Hydras against walls and corners to ensure all their attacks will be focused in one direction.

3.

Adapting Skills

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to burst down enemies quicker takes precedence.

  • Hydra Hydra remains the main damage dealer of the build, and retains the Cold rune Frost Hydra Frost Hydra for its AoE convenience.
  • Spectral Blade Spectral Blade is also kept in the build as an all-in-one tool for Arcane Dynamo Arcane Dynamo damage buffs and Barrier Blades Barrier Blades damage mitigation.
  • Although still viable, Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection diminishes in usefulness for your "utility" slot as it can be overly protective for speed GRs. In its place, we recommend that you take a monster grouping tool in the form of Black Hole Black Hole Absolute Zero Absolute Zero.
  • Means to maneuver throughout the Rift remain paramount, and even more so, in Greater Rift speed farming. Thus Teleport Teleport remains in the build, and you can opt for the multiple charges of the Wormhole Wormhole rune over the protective Safe Passage Safe Passage. Note the option to take Aether Walker Aether Walker, which allows you to keep the protective rune while maintaining superb mobility, at the cost of a substantial damage decrease.
  • Storm Armor Storm Armor should remain in the build for the protective procs of Halo of Karini Halo of Karini, but you can alter the rune from Shocking Aspect Shocking Aspect to the movement speed buff from Scramble Scramble.
  • Blizzard Blizzard is still required in the build due to the increased Hydra Hydra damage dealt to enemies caught inside its radius, thanks to the Winter Flurry Winter Flurry unique power.
  • All the passives from Greater Rift progression maintain their tremendous value during GR speed farming as well: Audacity Audacity, Arcane Dynamo Arcane Dynamo and Elemental Exposure Elemental Exposure for the damage buffs, and Galvanizing Ward Galvanizing Ward for the protective utility.
4.

Adapting Gear

You will maintain the five worn pieces of the The Typhon's Veil set, and wear your better roll between The Magistrate The Magistrate and Tasker and Theo Tasker and Theo (and cubing the worse one, along with Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube in order to maintain the 6-piece Typhon bonus).

The remainder of your gear should also match the GR solo progression counterpart; your weapon and off-hand stick to the Hydra Hydra-dedicated Serpent's Sparker Serpent's Sparker and Winter Flurry Winter Flurry, while your utility slots (belt and bracers) maintain the valuable Guardian set bonus. Note that the former favorite for the belt slot, The Shame of Delsere The Shame of Delsere, has more value in a GR speed farm setup due to the possible alteration to Aether Walker Aether Walker in the Cube, which will tax your Arcane Power resources greatly and might need the belt to compensate. The bracer slot can be altered to Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers if you are farming in a group, so you can independently spawn the extra elite at every Pylon.

Your jewelry will mostly match your GR progression setup, with Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace providing too valuable of a damage buff to disregard, and with similar defensive value coming from Halo of Karini Halo of Karini. You can viably alternate Convention of Elements Convention of Elements in lower tier Greater Rift speed farming to a Cold damage Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan to enjoy the consistent elemental damage bonus and remove the CoE timing element.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Intelligence
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Intelligence
  2. Area Damage
  3. Hydra % Damage
  4. Life % or Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Intelligence
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Hydra % Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Cold % Damage
  4. Life per Hit or Vitality
  5. Reduced Damage Melee Attacks (Secondary stat)
Hands
  1. Intelligence (or Area Damage at high Paragon)
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Attack Speed
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Damage (if The Witching Hour The Witching Hour)
  3. Attack Speed (if The Witching Hour The Witching Hour)
  4. Vitality
  5. Armor
  6. Life %
  7. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  8. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Intelligence
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. All Resistance
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Cold % Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Attack Speed or Area Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Attack Speed or Area Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  3. Intelligence
  4. Attack Speed
  5. Area Damage
Off-hand
  1. High Damage Range
  2. Cold % Damage
  3. Intelligence
  4. Critical Hit Chance
  5. Hydra % Damage

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.

4.1.

Altar of Rites

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

Altar of Rites Planner

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

5.

Adapting Gems

Both Enforcer Enforcer and Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped still bring excellent damage multiplication value to the build in speed farming. Within the limited challenges of Speed Greater Rifts, Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken should be replaced by either Zei's Stone of Vengeance Zei's Stone of Vengeance (stronger damage increase, but positioning and range dependent) or Bane of the Powerful Bane of the Powerful (a well-rounded damage increase and damage mitigation bonus with a timed element).

Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

6.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

Depending on how confident you are with the rest of your gear and how high you plan on doing speed GR runs, you can either stick to the staple Fragment of Destiny Fragment of Destiny and maneuver a little slower throughout the Rift, or insert Aether Walker Aether Walker in the weapon Cube slot for unlimited Teleport Teleport potential.

The remainder of your Cube choices should mimic the GR progression setup, with your weaker item between Tasker and Theo Tasker and Theo and The Magistrate The Magistrate in the armor slot, and a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the jewelry slot.

In Season 33, where you get a 4th slot for the Kanai's Cube, you can introduce additional utility to the build by slotting Aether Walker Aether Walker there.

7.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during GR speed farming is the Enchantress, due to her cooldown reduction bonus (cutting down Teleport Teleport downtime) and increased attack speed bonus (helping your Hydra Hydras reach attack speed breakpoints easier).

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.

8.

Legendary Potion

The preferred potions for this build are Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid (allowing you to break down Waller affixes that impede Hydra Hydra DPS), Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered (giving you a brief window of CC immunity to counter your lack of CC-breaking or immunity skills), or Bottomless Potion of the Tower Bottomless Potion of the Tower (whose Armor-increasing properties complement the naturally high All Resistances stat of Wizards). Pick whichever you feel helps you out the most.

9.

Changelog

  • 23 Oct. 2024: Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
  • 10 Jul. 2024: Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
  • 10 Apr. 2024: Guide reviewed for Season 31.
  • 10 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 06 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 22 Oct. 2021: Variation added.
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