Typhon Frost Hydra Wizard Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation

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

Nephalem Rift Speed Farming and Bounties

The Typhon Hydra Wizard can deal reasonably well with Nephalem Rift Speed Farming, mostly thanks to overwhelming damage potential offered by Hydra Hydras that allows you to include Aether Walker Aether Walker in the build. 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.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

2.

Adapting Skills for Nephalem T16 Rifts

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Familiar Icon Familiar Arcanot Arcanot 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 Energy Armor Icon Energy Armor Pinpoint Barrier Pinpoint Barrier
Passive Skills

When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.

The vital duality of your rotation from the GR setups — dropping Blizzard Blizzard on top of enemies to get the Winter Flurry Winter Flurry buff going and summoning two Hydra Hydras to obliterate the pull — is still the bread and butter of the build. In T16 farm, said pulls will be assisted by two skills; Teleport Teleport Wormhole Wormhole to move across the map, and Black Hole Black Hole Absolute Zero Absolute Zero to draw enemies into a clump for the Hydra Hydra's ease. Since you can easily overkill on defense, you will drop the Storm Armor Storm Armor and Halo of Karini Halo of Karini combo and Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection for a more tame, utility-driven combination of Familiar Familiar Arcanot Arcanot (to make up for the loss of a generator skill, which is too slow to use in T16s), and Energy Armor Energy Armor (for a reasonable protective layer in combination with Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer, plus a smattering of extra damage with the Pinpoint Barrier Pinpoint Barrier rune).

In the passives, you will maintain Galvanizing Ward Galvanizing Ward to safeguard your Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace bonus, and Elemental Exposure Elemental Exposure for the decent damage bonus to this varied elemental build. However you should swap Audacity Audacity for its distanced counterpart Power Hungry Power Hungry, and ditch the Arcane Dynamo Arcane Dynamo buildup bonuses (too slow for T16 farm) for a safety net against burst damage in the form of Unstable Anomaly Unstable Anomaly.

3.

Adapting Skills for Bounties

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Familiar Icon Familiar Arcanot Arcanot Right Mouse Button Hydra Icon Hydra Frost Hydra Frost Hydra 1 Teleport Icon Teleport Wormhole Wormhole 2 Blizzard Icon Blizzard Apocalypse Apocalypse 3 Magic Weapon Icon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection 4 Storm Armor Icon Storm Armor Scramble Scramble
Passive Skills

During Bounties, your utmost priority is the ability to cross over great distances, while maintaining some safety in a group game where everyone splits to do different tasks across the map — the so-called "split bounties", which is the optimal behavior for Bounty farming.

Pre-casting Blizzard Blizzard on enemies' heads to trigger Winter Flurry Winter Flurry damage buff and casting the two Hydra Hydras to demolish your enemies remains the core of the rotation. It should be noted that in Bounties, you can viably alternate to Lightning Hydra Lightning Hydra, trading off the Frost's AoE for improved single target damage (arguably good for Act Bosses during bounties). As a Wizard, a measure of defense is still required even in T16 bounties, so Magic Weapon Magic Weapon Deflection Deflection is kept from the progression build, and Storm Armor Storm Armor still makes an appearance — although with the speed-oriented Scramble Scramble rune. The need for speed is also reflected in Teleport Teleport Wormhole Wormhole, as well as the exclusion of a primary attack in favor of the passive Arcane Power gain from Familiar Familiar Arcanot Arcanot.

In the passives, you will maintain Galvanizing Ward Galvanizing Ward to safeguard your Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace bonus, but should exchange Audacity Audacity for its distanced counterpart Power Hungry Power Hungry. Illusionist Illusionist will replace Elemental Exposure Elemental Exposure to further improve your mobility. Unstable Anomaly Unstable Anomaly takes the place of Arcane Dynamo Arcane Dynamo (note the lack of a primary skill in the setup) to offer a last line of defense in unlucky, lethal circumstances.

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).

Jewelry will largely match the GR progression setup, with Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace offering a ubiquitous damage bonus for the slot that is too hard to ignore. In T16 Nephalem Rift farm, you should pair it with a pure DPS combo of Convention of Elements Convention of Elements and a Cold damage Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan, while in Bounties it is better to balance defense and offense with a Halo of Karini Halo of Karini and a Cold SoJ.

Your utility slots offer the greater variance, with some ability to mix and match according to your needs. In general, for T16 we advise that you stay on the craftable Guardian set, which provides the universally useful doubling of primary stats. You can, however, optimize further for T16 rifts and wear a Goldwrap Goldwrap, which synergizes nicely with a socketed Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder legendary gem and an Avarice Band Avarice Band worn by your follower to extend your pickup radius; a combo that can render you practically invulnerable and offers a steady stream of gold. For Bounties, you should consider Krelm's Buff Belt Krelm's Buff Belt to further improve your run speed.

If you opted to use Goldwrap Goldwrap or Krelm's Buff Belt Krelm's Buff Belt, you will need to adjust your bracer as well. This is where the old favorite, Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer, shines — as it offers synergy with Galvanizing Ward Galvanizing Ward and your shield spells. If you are confident with your power and handling the build however, you can alter this slot to the speed buff of Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards, or to Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers in groups.

In a supremely optimized setup, you can consider dropping Winter Flurry Winter Flurry for the craftable Cosmic Strand Cosmic Strand. This allows you to alter Teleport Teleport to the Calamity Calamity rune, and drop Blizzard Blizzard for Black Hole Black Hole Absolute Zero Absolute Zero. This alteration will be extremely mobile and flashy, but will be greatly taxing on your Arcane Power resource management, and will require that you have a separate gear set for farming with maxed out Resource Cost Reduction across the board.

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 T16 and Bounties. Within the limited challenges of T16 and Bounties however, 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, you can stick to the GR progression staple Fragment of Destiny Fragment of Destiny and maneuver considerably slower through T16 rifts, or insert Aether Walker Aether Walker in the weapon Cube slot for unlimited Teleport Teleport potential. Note that this alteration should be made sooner than later, especially if you plan on doing Bounties with the build.

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 re-introduce Fragment of Destiny Fragment of Destiny to the build and enjoy its considerable damage increase.

7.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during T16 and Bounties 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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