From what I know none of the passive spells work with 6th piece of Tal Rasha, only active spells. With 700% dmg boost Hydras dmg is (would be if the bug is going to be fixed) insane, it's 330 wpn dmg/s for every river and they stack. With Serpents Sparker and let's say 2 aps hydra, your dmg from hydras alone is 330 wpn dmg * 2 hydras * 2 rivers per second * 5 seconds that each river lasts *(1+7) from tal rasha = 52800 wpn dmg/s if your opponent is not moving, from hydras without any buffs other than tal rasha. Obviously moving foes and buff uptime, lower aps etc is gonna decrease the overall hydra damage, but it still won't be anywhere near mediocre. So the overall dmg lost is much more than 5%, too. Of course only mammoth hydra counts as it's op compared to the other options.
There is really no point to it, since most of the enemies will die from other sources, than fire damage. Only thing I'll personally miss from boringbird is that resurrect. I am more interested in 4 pc Delsere + Tal, even if not BiS.
If by last patch you mean it was brought down to 700% dmg buff, you still crit for around two bills with fire,cold,lightning meteors and I was doing 8-12bills with arcane one (this is from solo play and I am pretty sure my gear is nowhere near highend with lots of +fire dmg leftovers from firebird setup). It's the only set which has rightful place in group GR.
You can run pretty much anything in T6 rift, this is basically the same like runing WoW on live now, but on PTR you'll have more dmg and SLIGHTLY more survivability, but that's really about it.
He probably wants to use what he will use on NS live. I did it too as I don't want to be fooled by ransor. it's an amazing piece that changes playstyle. I want to practice the playstyle i'll use on NS though, so i too use strongarms + BH...
I just saw Usling34 down a RG on Grift 49 with a Wand of Woh spec, without Hydra. He used cold Spectral Blades, Frozen Armor, Lightning Meteor, Fire EB, Black Hole - Spellsteal and Force Weapon.
I am trying to decide what I want to play for D3 (its between DH and Wiz). I play both solo and groups and would like to flirt with pushing high up on the leaderboards. I have been quite happy to see that Wiz is currently doing well on the group leaderboards and so is it safe to assume it looks like Wiz with Tal set will be good in higher grifts in season 3? I keep hearing about how the new DH sets and how nobody is really pushing DH on the PTR and so I am afraid the ptr leaderboard is not going to be representative of group set-ups for season 3.
I do realize with the amazing amount of combinations in this game it is impossible to pick the best group comp before a season with certainty, but I would like to hear everyones thoughts as to how viable wiz are in h grifts come S3 (as leaderboards and forums are in stark contrast with each other currently on the ptr)
What build\s have everyone here had most succes with so far in non season, thats what im curios of. please post builds and possibly variations again atm i've found 3 interesting builds in this thread, spread over 10 pages, gathering it a bit could be nice.
here are the builds i've opend in new tabs.. just builds, no gear options, and sorry to the creators who i forgot who was ( i think at least 2 of them was from Blayreau)
From what I know none of the passive spells work with 6th piece of Tal Rasha, only active spells. With 700% dmg boost Hydras dmg is (would be if the bug is going to be fixed) insane, it's 330 wpn dmg/s for every river and they stack. With Serpents Sparker and let's say 2 aps hydra, your dmg from hydras alone is 330 wpn dmg * 2 hydras * 2 rivers per second * 5 seconds that each river lasts *(1+7) from tal rasha = 52800 wpn dmg/s if your opponent is not moving, from hydras without any buffs other than tal rasha. Obviously moving foes and buff uptime, lower aps etc is gonna decrease the overall hydra damage, but it still won't be anywhere near mediocre. So the overall dmg lost is much more than 5%, too. Of course only mammoth hydra counts as it's op compared to the other options.
There is really no point to it, since most of the enemies will die from other sources, than fire damage. Only thing I'll personally miss from boringbird is that resurrect. I am more interested in 4 pc Delsere + Tal, even if not BiS.
If by last patch you mean it was brought down to 700% dmg buff, you still crit for around two bills with fire,cold,lightning meteors and I was doing 8-12bills with arcane one (this is from solo play and I am pretty sure my gear is nowhere near highend with lots of +fire dmg leftovers from firebird setup). It's the only set which has rightful place in group GR.
What happened with R+F? Does it changed drasticly?
You can run pretty much anything in T6 rift, this is basically the same like runing WoW on live now, but on PTR you'll have more dmg and SLIGHTLY more survivability, but that's really about it.
@Blayreau: Any new findings in good Tal build's?
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Wiberg-21958/hero/35061489
Ransor is mandatory item, don't think it can be replaced by strongam+blackhole.
My current build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#bliVSO!YXRh!bZcYbY
Finish GR54 in 11 minutes.
"We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us."
He probably wants to use what he will use on NS live. I did it too as I don't want to be fooled by ransor. it's an amazing piece that changes playstyle. I want to practice the playstyle i'll use on NS though, so i too use strongarms + BH...
You can skip both Ranslor and Strongarm, depends only on your playstyle and goal (Consistent Farm vs Extensive Fishing).
Also, I think, that your clear, which is built solely around bugged hydra is quite misleading.
Anyone tried wizard on the PTR post Hydra & Tal's hotfix?
Link to blue:
http://www.diablofans.com/blizz-tracker/topic/58705-patch-2-2-0-ptr-hotfixes-updated-4-1
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Wiberg-21958/hero/35061489
I just saw Usling34 down a RG on Grift 49 with a Wand of Woh spec, without Hydra. He used cold Spectral Blades, Frozen Armor, Lightning Meteor, Fire EB, Black Hole - Spellsteal and Force Weapon.
Current highest solo is 54 for wiz.
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Wiberg-21958/hero/35061489
Yes, a badas$ 3200 DPS SS. Ranslor's, TnT. F+R.
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Wiberg-21958/hero/35061489
GR49 after last hotfix
"We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us."
Wow! 4 player leaderboard top right now (from last night, might have changed), Grift 58: 2 wiz, DH + Crus. Niiice!
Edit: http://i.imgur.com/X43EnGK.jpg
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Wiberg-21958/hero/35061489
I am trying to decide what I want to play for D3 (its between DH and Wiz). I play both solo and groups and would like to flirt with pushing high up on the leaderboards. I have been quite happy to see that Wiz is currently doing well on the group leaderboards and so is it safe to assume it looks like Wiz with Tal set will be good in higher grifts in season 3? I keep hearing about how the new DH sets and how nobody is really pushing DH on the PTR and so I am afraid the ptr leaderboard is not going to be representative of group set-ups for season 3.
I do realize with the amazing amount of combinations in this game it is impossible to pick the best group comp before a season with certainty, but I would like to hear everyones thoughts as to how viable wiz are in h grifts come S3 (as leaderboards and forums are in stark contrast with each other currently on the ptr)
What build\s have everyone here had most succes with so far in non season, thats what im curios of.
please post builds and possibly variations again 
atm i've found 3 interesting builds in this thread, spread over 10 pages, gathering it a bit could be nice. 
here are the builds i've opend in new tabs.. just builds, no gear options, and sorry to the creators who i forgot who was ( i think at least 2 of them was from Blayreau)
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#eSihlO!RhYX!cZcZbY
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#PjbiVS!YhRX!bYbcYb
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#USPiVO!YhRc!YbbcYY
last - http://www.diablofans.com/builds/53633-2-2-tal-rasha-solo-gr50 taken from the frontpage, credit to J MaccTV