Hydra vs Fireball

ShadowHeart wrote: 7 months ago

vued wrote: 7 months ago

Vs. DClone you want
Meteor since the fire on the Ground stops his regen.

Hydra stops his regen too. With all 18 Hydra heads shooting it basically forms a continuous stream of firebolts, and since every time a firebolt hits it stops his regen for 8 frames, he basically doesn't regen at all as long as he doesn't run around and Dodge too many firebolts (with the Meteor you have a similar issue too - you need him to stay in place). Trust me, I've killed dclone easily with a pure Hydra sorc without any kind of PMH. (my primary dclone killer throughout ladder season 12 was a Hydra sorc)

Are the 8 frames similar to poison? I.e. 8 frames online, only 1 frame offline?

vued wrote: 7 months ago

Are the 8 frames similar to poison? I.e. 8 frames online, only 1 frame offline?

Yes, it's exactly like that. Poison works like a negative regen, and in online games, any damage dealth to a target halts both poison tick and regen on it for 8 frames (the frame on which the damage took place plus 7 frames after).

For this reason you technically don't need PMH, OW or poison in online games to halt regen vs dclone and ubers, as long as you can keep a damage rate of 8 fpa or faster.

And yes, offline is a different story (regen is only paused for that single frame when the damage is applied in offline games).

TheDoo wrote: 7 months ago

Tried
Hydra only once and from what I remember they are quite finicky to get to work properly while with
Fireball you can just spam + there's a nice aoe.

Eh, i have 1 reliable Diablo Clone killer right now, and that's my Hydra sorc...

A friend of mine had a Hydra Sorceress which was truly amazing. Her thoughts about Hydra were that she did not need to aim, just dropped dragons. All she had to do was spam. Where Fireball was concerned, she did not like the aim vs. miss factor. She wanted auto-aim introduced into the game which made me laugh. So I turned her onto a BowZon, Strafe edition.

So if I ever do a Fire Sorceress... It will be Hydra Sorceress all day long. Because I'm lazy like that. Ya know?

No harm, no foul. I thought it was a funny tale to tell. And yes, it is not the best game for the lazy ones like her. She plays a lot of World of Warcraft where she uses Lazy "One button" rotation scripts.

mikelessar wrote: 7 months ago

QuadraHedron wrote: 7 months ago

A friend of mine had a Hydra Sorceress which was truly amazing. Her thoughts about Hydra were that she did not need to aim, just dropped dragons. All she had to do was spam. Where Fireball was concerned, she did not like the aim vs. miss factor. She wanted auto-aim introduced into the game which made me laugh. So I turned her onto a BowZon, Strafe edition.

So if I ever do a Fire Sorceress... It will be Hydra Sorceress all day long. Because I'm lazy like that. Ya know?

That's funny. I mean no harm, but aiming fireballs is not that hard with their aoe. If that is too hard, then maybe an ARPG is not the right type of game for your friend.

And as many here have already said, the question is not Fireball or Hydra, but you combine Hydra with Fireball or as an alternative Meteor and Fireball or Frozen Orb and Fireball. But since the introduction of sunder charms, a single element is always stronger.
If you really want to avoid aiming at all, a high Dragondin (expensive gear!) is the build to go for.

Yeah! Unlike some other builds where you need to play a skill piano, I would never consider Fire Sorc an aim/skill dependent build -- you just throw some balls in approx. direction of enemies, they die, you move/tele, and then repeat. xd
Sure, it's not like afk Dragondin but it's still pretty auto play without much thinking playstyle

Well, depends what you mean by optimal.
I have Eschuta with -5res facet and I don't use it.
I made sword with six facets wgich I also don't use.
Same with HOTO.

Instead i most often run fire sorc with Oculus with either Ist or jewel.

ganseng wrote: 5 months ago

hi all, a question about the optimal weapon.. most people do eschuta (spelling??) but i guess a blue/yellow item can roll better.. i've seen rolls like +3 fire skills, +3 Fire Mastery, +3 skill x, +20% fcr.. question is, would something truly godly be possible??
like
+3 fire skills
+3 Fire Mastery
+3 Fireball or Hydra
+20% fcr
3 sockets (in a Swirling Crystal??)
some mana or whatever is left

Two is the max sockets for magic and rare orbs.

ganseng wrote: 5 months ago

thanks.. with optimal i mean like uber / p8 killer

so theoretically an orb with 3/3/3/20fcr and 2 facets (including one new uber facet) would be possible?

3/3/3 is around 3/18 Temper
20 vs 40 fcr
2 facet vs 1 facet


in practical, magic orb is bad. you are choosing between 20 fcr or 1 extra facet

simple solution is id and sell it, all rare magic ob lost and very hard to sell.

ganseng wrote: 7 months ago

Thanks again to all - now I can confirm first hand that Fireball feels much faster and more gratifying. Damn shame Trang\Ouls + 18 to Fireball doesn't apply to sorc - seemed like such a clever idea
About static - if I have to choose due to slow handling between static and Lower Resist, what is better?
And what lvl do I have to be to buy a Wand with lvl 3 Lower Resist charges?

Fwiw, +3 to Fireball from the Trang's gloves and belt isn't the worst thing in the world if you're operating on a budget. But yeah, Magefist is generally the preferred source of FCR for fire casters.

Mine is full Tal Rasha's set, Magefist, 2x SoJ, Phoenix. Merc runs Infinity when I'm playing hell, Insight if I'm power-leveling other people. It's not BiS, but I have no problems although it does slow down a little in P8 Hell Baal's waves.

Hydras + Static Field is a match made in heaven. The area HP reduction will easily compensate for the Hydra drawback of slow killing multiple enemies.

You need a decent FCR and enough levels in Static Field though (range increase). Cast the hydras, wait the firing delay (whether they fire or not), Teleport closer to the spawn point and spam Static Field to drop all enemies down to 50% life. Easy starting build.

The best part is that only Fire Mastery is really necessary for damage increase, so it's a < 60 point build (~10 points in Static Field is good enough with bonuses). You can decide where the rest o ( Hydra synergies, Telekinesis + mana shield, Frozen Orb + Cold Mastery, Thunder Storm + Lightning Mastery).

The Thunder Storm + Lightning Mastery is a favorite of mine due to Static Field synergy and already carrying a lightning sunder charm most of the time. However, I used to go Frozen Orb + Cold Mastery in the old, non-existing sunder charm times (still is in classic as Static Field is stronger).

leox wrote: 5 months ago

ganseng wrote: 5 months ago

thanks.. with optimal i mean like uber / p8 killer

so theoretically an orb with 3/3/3/20fcr and 2 facets (including one new uber facet) would be possible?

3/3/3 is around 3/18 Temper
20 vs 40 fcr
2 facet vs 1 facet


in practical, magic orb is bad. you are choosing between 20 fcr or 1 extra facet

simple solution is id and sell it, all rare magic ob lost and very hard to sell.

Nope.

With 3/3/3 OP meant 3 tree skills, 3 main skill, 3 mastery. I.e. 6 to main skill and mastery.

This is the best you can get but those rares are extremely rare.

And yes, 2 sockets are max for rares, even if the base item could have more.