Typhon Hydra Wizard Guide

1. Do the Challenge Rift for the materials to cube Legendary Powers. You can complete this once a week for additional resources and we always update the guide for you!

2. Gather the full The Typhon's Veil set. Each piece can be gambled from Kadala for Bloodshards. Do not salvage any duplicate pieces you find! Instead convert them to another part of the set with Recipe 4 in Kanai's Cube. If you have extra materials you can use Recipe 3 to craft the remaining pieces, but this is expensive and not recommended for new players.

3. Gamble from Kadala in this order:

1. The full The Typhon's Veil set
2. The Magistrate
3. Create a level 1 Wizard and gamble for Winter Flurry
4. Goldwrap, The Shame of Delsere and Krelm's Buff belt
5. Tasker and Theo
6. Nemesis Bracers and Ashnagarr's Blood Bracers
7. Halo of Karini, Stone of Jordan and Convention of Elements

4. Craft using Recipe 3 in Kanai's Cube in this order:

1. Wands to get Serpent's Sparker, Fragment of Destiny and Aether Walker
2. Amulets to get Squirt's Necklace
3. Anything from the Gamble list in Step 3 that you haven't already acquired.

5. Do Bounties to acquire several important items for this build:

• Act 1: Ring of Royal Grandeur
• Act 2: Gloves of Worship
• Act 3: Avarice Band
• Act 4: Can drop any bounty item from any act
• Bounty Turn In: Recipes for Sage's Journey and Cain's Destiny

6. At this point you can somewhat comfortably farm Nephalem or Speed Greater Rifts where you can find all the remaining items you need for different variants of the build. It's better to spend your materials improving your set pieces, getting ancient weapon etc.

7. Use Primordial Ashes in Kanai's Cube with the new Curiosity of Lorath Nahr recipe to obtain a free Crafted Primal Ancient. Since you can only equip one of them, choosing the right item to focus matters! Great candidates are Weapons, Offhands, Jewelry or any item with an important multiplier. With that in mind, we recommend getting one of the following items:

• Serpent's Sparker
• Winter Flurry
• Convention of Elements
• Halo of Karini

• Enforcer is the best gem, providing up to 60% multiplicative damage bonus for your Hydras.
• Bane of the Trapped is procced automatically from Hydra through their attacks and is equally strong.
• Bane of the Stricken helps us in killing the boss and potentially yellow Elites due to our extremely fast attacks with Signature Spells. For farming lower Greater Rift Tiers or Nephalem Rifts, you can replace this gem with Bane of the Powerful, Boon of the Hoarder or even Esoteric Alteration if you need some extra toughness. Zei's Stone of Vengeance is another DPS option once you level it very high as Bane of the Powerful doesn't scale at all (the gem's bonus damage is calculated from the player's distance to the enemy).

• Hydra Frost Hydra is our main damage dealer and activates the set bonuses for 80% damage reduction and 20,000% increased damage.
• Blizzard is needed to gain the 150% increased damage bonus from Winter Flurry. The two best runes to use are either Apocalypse for increased AoE or Unrelenting Storm for increased duration.
• Spectral Blade Barrier Blades is necessary for Fragment of Destiny synergy and providing shields to keep up Squirt's Necklace. This will also be used to stack Bane of the Stricken very quickly on Rift Guardians and sometimes yellow Elites.
• Storm Armor activates Halo of Karini. Without this buff you will be squashed like a fly, so make sure to keep it up. Typically you want to use the Shocking Aspect rune for pushing and Scramble for farming.
• Black Hole Absolute Zero adds the ability to group up enemies for Area Damage value as well as giving extra Cold damage for your following Frost Hydra casts for 10 seconds.
• Teleport is the last skill in the arsenal, allowing you to move around quickly and get into the fray or out of danger when necessary. The two best runes to choose are Wormhole or Safe Passage, depending on preference.

• Galvanizing Ward is absolutely indispensable as we need to stay shielded at all times to avoid losing our Hydra heads, which will die when you take damage (see The Typhon's Veil (4) Bonus). It periodically grants a massive shield that will also protect Squirt's Necklace.
• Elemental Exposure is a separate multiplier debuffing each target once for each element (Fire, Cold, Arcane, Lightning) for up to 5 seconds when you hit them. The elemental type of the damage range on your equipped weapon will also be applied with each ability that you hit with, which is why you preferably have Lightning or Fire on it.
• Audacity provides us with a separate 1.3 multiplier for targets within 15 yards of the player
• Arcane Dynamo is a very strong passive in this build, as Hydra snapshots this effect on cast for the entire duration and thus can be boosted by a whopping 60% multiplicative damage. Due to the fast attack speed from Fragment of Destiny and The Shame of Delsere synergy, it will take barely more than a second to gain all 5 stacks required. Even in speedfarming when you don't always try very hard to activate the bonus, this remains a strong option.
• The above passives are the optimal choice for most damage done. Other useful passives include Unstable Anomaly for Hardcore, Blur for extra defense, Illusionist for extra mobility when farming.

¹ Add a bit of Vitality if you feel too squishy (a total of 900,000 Life is recommended).

The Altar of Rites is a tree that grants tremendous powers to your entire account in exchange for sacrifices. It requires you to farm Bounties, kill the Ubers, craft the Staff of Herding, and more. Completing all 26 of these tasks, along with sacrificing 6 Primal Ancients grants you extra Damage, Defense, Quality of Life, Increased Drops and 3 Potion Super Powers. Read the full guides on Unlocking the Altar and the Altar Mechanics by Raxxanterax and Chewingnom to learn everything about this fantastic mechanic!

Optimal Path

Patch 2.7.0 revamped the follower system giving all 3 hirelings new powers and the emanate system. The first thing you should do is read our complete follower guide and remember the key takeaways:

1. The emanation system allows followers to share certain legendary and set powers with you. The most important ones are: The Flavor of Time, Nemesis Bracers, Avarice Band, Sage’s Journey and Cain’s Destiny. Click the guide above for the full list.
2. Follower’s powers are based on their main stat (maxed at 25,000, but they have a 2.5x multiplier so you only need 10,000). This means we stack Intelligence on the Enchantress, Dexterity on the Scoundrel and Strength on the Templar.
3. Guardian's Jeopardy (3) Bonus works for followers by improving their inherent stat multiplier from x2.5 to x3.5, making it slightly easier to hit the 25,000 main stat threshold if needed.
4. Followers share 20% of their Experience, Magic and Gold Find stats with you.
5. Legendary gems do not work on followers, except Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard.
6. With Enforcer equipped on the player it's much easier to keep followers alive even without an immortality relic. The 90% damage reduction counts for them, too.
7. Cooldown Reduction does not work for any follower skill except the Templar’s Heal.
8. Followers never deal significant damage; you’re on your own to clear the content.

Select Follower

• At the start of a run, buff yourself with Storm Armor to enable the 80% damage reduction from Halo of Karini. Make sure you keep this buff up at all times. In most situations it will not require much attention, but be careful when there are only very few or one enemy as you need to hit something that is at least 15 yards away from you. When fighting single target Rift Guardians especially, make sure to walk away a few steps regularly. The damage reduction can be tracked on your buff bar. Don’t forget to re-apply this skill after 10 minutes when pushing.
• Whenever you start a new rift, die, or change zones, make sure to cast Hydra twice to make sure you get the defensive bonuses from The Typhon's Veil. Also make sure to refresh them regularly should your Hydra heads ever start dying when enemies get through your shields until you stabilize again. They disappear quickly and you will take a lot more damage even when missing just one or two.
• Use Spectral Blade as much as possible while you don't have to move around too much, or try to stutter-step your way forward when you do. This will build shields and Fragment of Destiny as well as Arcane Dynamo stacks. Keep in mind you need to actually hit enemies for Fragment of Destiny (but not for the other effects).
• Place Hydra in strategic positons after maxing out Arcane Dynamo, which will be snapshot during the entire duration. The best spots are either in corners or near a wall to allow their cone-shaped AoE to hit the highest number of targets without risking to have stray enemies distract your Hydra heads. They will always attack the closest target to them, so it's up to you to control enemies and position and your Hydras in a way that maximizes their damage done. Try to use this skill when you have reached maximum Arcane Dynamo stacks and cast the other spells before that when possible.
• After setting everything up, cast Blizzard once in the center of the pull to activate Winter Flurry. In very large pulls, two casts could be useful
• Use Black Hole Absolute Zero before setting up your Frost Hydra to maximize Area Damage value and boost your Cold damage done. This effect is also snapshot for the entire duration of your Hydra.
• Move around the battlefield to position enemies close to your Hydras and try to stay close to them yourself, as their range is quite limited. This will ensure good uptime of Audacity and when possible, try to kill one small enemy before your big nuke during your Convention of Elements Cold cycle using Black Hole to spawn Oculus Ring. When it appears in the right spot, you can dramatically increase your damage by teleporting into one.

By default, Wizards are not really great for Hardcore as they don't have a proper cheat death immunity mechanic like most other classes. Regardless, the build is overall relatively mobile and tanky, so you should not have much trouble once your setup is complete. You should use Unstable Anomaly at all times, but don’t rely on it as it does not make you invincible, it only protects you with a certain amount of shield based on your life pool!

If you forget your buffs or your damage reduction from the The Typhon's Veil (4) Bonus starts dropping due to the lack of shields, or you lose your Halo of Karini buff for whatever reason, you are almost guaranteed dead. Make sure to pay special attention to your defensive buffs and you will be fine. Check out our dedicated Hardcore Survival Guide to learn more about how to succeed in this game mode!

• Unlike most other skills in the game, Hydra uses Attack Speed breakpoints with very large ranges.
• Reaching another breakpoint usually means a huge boost in DPS, while not reaching it could mean a huge waste of attack speed rolls on your items.
• Tasker and Theo adds a flat multiplier to your attack speed that is relevant for these breakpoints. A better roll on the affix means fewer Attack Speed primary rolls needed on your items. E.g. in case of a 40% affix, you have to multiply your Attacks per Second (APS) in your character details by 1.4, in case of a 50% affix by 1.5. The difference between a good and a bad Tasker can mean up to two full primary rolls, which makes the affix extremely important.
• The most relevant and best-value breakpoint is 1.86 sheet APS (or 2.78 APS if you include a perfect 50% Tasker and Theo multiplier), which puts your Frost Hydra at 30 FPA (Frames per Attack). You can reach this with 50% Tasker, 10% Paragon, 7% Weapon and two more 7% rolls on other items. Should you have any imperfect rolls, you will have to add another primary affix somewhere to make up for the difference.
• In case this is completely unreachable for you, try to replace all but one Attack Speed rolls with other useful stats (e.g. Area Damage or Vitality) and go for the 36 FPA breakpoint. The lower threshold to reach this is 2.33 APS including the Tasker and Theo multiplier. This can generally be achieved with a single Attack Speed roll anywhere on your gear (1x 5% Attack Speed with 45% Tasker or 1x 6% Attack Speed with 44% Tasker or 1x 7% Attack Speed with 42% Tasker).
• Keep in mind that Attack Speed on your weapon is more effective than on other slots as it multiplies your weapon's base Attack Speed and thus your Attack Speed bonuses from other sources.
• In case your available options differ from the optimal distribution, make sure to import your personal character into D3planner and check the breakpoint table there yourself!
• Learn more about Attack Speed breakpoints in general in this in-depth post by sVr!

• The Typhon's Veil works with all Hydra runes besides Mammoth Hydra, as it is not a multi-headed Hydra. The intended playstyle of this set is to never take any damage whatsoever by using the numerous shield mechanics available to the class.
• The number of active Hydra heads is displayed on the skill bar. Keep an eye on it when you start taking damage. Make sure to set up Hydras immediately when you start a run, die or change zones in order to gain the Toughness buff. Refresh Hydras a lot when your shields are broken and you need time to recover.
• Serpent's Sparker allows you to cast a second Hydra, effectively doubling all bonuses gained from the The Typhon's Veil set in addition to its 300% separate damage multiplier. The maximum number of heads using this item is (2 + 3) * 2 = 10 for a total of 20,000% damage increase from the (6) Bonus and 80% damage reduction from the (4) Bonus.

• In order to keep up your shields to survive but also maintaining Squirt's Necklace damage multiplier, you need to learn to judge the incoming damage and how fast you can build those shields yourself, which can require some practice.
• Shields have no direct UI indicator unless you mouse-over your health globe.
• You can see that you have any shield up when you see a transparent blue bubble around your character (not the size of the shield, however).
• Because Wizard Shields value scales with your total life, Vitality and Life % stats become substantially better for toughness scaling when using this mechanic in comparison to other builds.
• Galvanizing Ward is the main shielding mechanic used for most Wizard builds, which combined with Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer adds up to 120% of your total life as a shield. This shield will reset to its maximum value every 5 seconds if this shield in particular doesn't take any hit in the meantime.
• Spectral Blade Barrier Blades and Magic Weapon Deflection represent the secondary shielding mechanic of the Wizard and can be stacked as much as you like, but their shield value is set at 4% (up to 8% with Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer) of your total life and they only lasts for 3 seconds. The duration is counted for each stack individually.
• While Barrier Blades or Deflection (or any other shield in that matter) protect the Galvanizing Ward shield, it is possible to reset the shield gained from the passive to full even while taking hits.
• All of these mechanics make it so that when your shields start breaking or your Galvanizing Ward doesn't find enough time to reset sometimes, the whole setup will fall apart really quickly. Make sure you understand your limits and survivability in different situations.

• The Attack Speed bonus of The Shame of Delsere and Fragment of Destiny are multiplicative with each other and with other bonuses. This means using both will grant you a 1.5 * 1.5 = 2.25 Attack Speed multiplier. With the solo setup presented in this guide, using both these items will effectively drop your Spectral Blade breakpoint from 31 FPA to 14 FPA.
• This can be used to stack Bane of the Stricken faster on longer boss fights or even on Rare Elites because you can avoid hitting too many different enemies at a time using Spectral Blade. Try to use it a lot especially at the start of a long boss fight and when you are waiting for your Convention of Elements Cold cycle!
• The damage bonus stacks from Fragment of Destiny are additive with each other, combining into a 300% separate damage multiplier at 10 stacks. To gain and keep the stacks, you need to actually hit enemies. Each enemy hit adds another stack, so you won't have to attack 10 times in AoE situations.

• This item provides you a 5 second buff (seen on your buff bar) when you electrocute an enemy at least 15 yards away (around 1/4 to 1/3 of a screen).
• Keep in mind the range requirement! If you keep standing in melee range without other enemies further away, you will be in trouble.
• The Shocking Aspect is generally used for high Greater Rifts to guarantee consistent uptime of this buff. When staying too close to enemies - even with a large pull around you - it can happen that a streak of consecutive hits will not activate Halo of Karini and choosing the rune prevents this from happening.

• The damage bonus from Black Hole Absolute Zero is additive with your Cold Elemental damage. As a consequence, "Cold skills deal X% more damage" affixes (Mainly found on Bracers and Amulet slots but also on Winter Flurry), grants a lower relative damage increase to builds using Absolute Zero.

• This passive can gain an additional stack from your weapon’s element. This is one of the two main exceptions in the game to the rule of “element on weapon doesn’t matter for your damage”.
• Since the build already deals Cold damage from Frost Hydra and Arcane damage from Spectral Blade Barrier Blades by default and sometimes applies Lightning damage with Storm Armor, you want to have either Fire or Lightning on your weapon if possible. In case you use Blizzard Apocalypse, you can apply Fire with that and Lightning becomes the preferred option as Storm Armor has very bad uptime on multiple targets.
• The Magistrate has a special interaction: Hydra applies the stack of the Hydra element itself. The Frost Nova cast by your Hydras will, however, apply the Cold stack as well as the stack for the elemental range of your weapon.
• The damage bonus of this passive is multiplicative (5% per different element, added together as one bonus).

• This is one of the strongest DPS passives in the game, giving up to 60% multiplicative damage bonus for your Hydra.
• Maximum stack count is 5, which stacks once per attack of your Signature Spells (Spectral Blade).
• Stacks will be consumed by any damaging Arcane Power Spender, including non-Hydra spells.
• The effect will only activate and consume stacks after reaching the maximum.