HydraOrb?

[ChiComm]

Will a maxed Hydra/synergies in place of Meteor cut it in hell? I'm thinking MF areas. With lvl 32 Hydra/FM and 20 into Fireball, it does ~1500 damage a bolt. Is this enough, or is it better to just stick with Meteor?

[WarHymn]

You will have a hard time killing alot of things with hydra, and in the meteor/fireball is way better

[Stiertje]

If you're gonna have FireBall, why not use it? It's faster then Hydra, is easier to aim and doesn't have a delay counter (=spammable)

And when we're talking FireBall, Meteor and FireBall are mutual synergies, so your points are double invested. Meteor for the mobs and FB for the lonely monsters.

And FB does 4.5k damage (following Meteorb guide) and has splash damage. It's hard to beat that with Hydra. But then again, Hydra has it's features too, like the ability to cast Hydra and tehn jump out of harms way. It's only slower then Meteor/FB

[masakerr]

You will have a hard time killing alot of things with hydra, and in the meteor/fireball is way better

I disagree. My Sorceress (88) has maxed Hydra and maxed FM. I'm only doing 900 (or so max damage) and I do well in hell. Hydra shoots around corners, you can "launch" it into the next room to see if something is there (regardless of immunites, it'll let you know). My back up is Frozen Orb (maxed) and CM is at 20 (not quite maxed).

I didn't follow the synergies cause she was started before the patch. The only thing I don't care for are arrows (lol).

The bad side of Hydra it is in no way instaneous, but then neither is meteor. If they are fire and cold immune I gotta count on static field and my 88 Barb merc. So if you go Hydra, don't be in a hurry to do anything! I only play in hell, I'm good to go.

In a closing note I gotta say I think Meteor is the coolest (graphics wise) spell in the game! Wait till you get 2 or 3 Meteor Soreresses in a Baal run. You will then know what hell really looks like!

Masa

[Jackson]

And will also know what lag is like also, lol..well, maybe only for us modem users.

[Ravenforce3]

I used to use Hydra/Orbers back in .09. They make excellent Meph runners. You can run around and cast Hydra every so often, chilling him with Orb when the time runs out. If you keep him "In one spot," you'll have no problems at all. IMO, Hydra is VERY underrated.

[ChiComm]

Would you all say that hydra in place of meteor is effective for Pit runs?

[Jackson]

It could be better, since the fire bolts can spread out to attack the single monsters, rather than a big clump like Meteor. But, however, many of the monsters in the Pits are in big gatherings anyways, and plus, you have your merc to stand in the middle and let all the monsters gather around him.

In terms of damage, Meteor wins by a lot, but it's really up to you. But Meteor with Orb is one of the best Mfing builds in my opinion.

[Taniniver]

Personally, I would advise against hydra.

My current sorc is 1.09, orb/hydra. Her hydra is about level 33 I think, and it's damage sucks, less than 1000 per hit. You could of course get this higher in 1.10 with synergies, but even so, hydra lacks in one important respect - killing speed.

Sure it's safe, if you can hide and cast it at a distance, but if you want to fight the ancients for example, forget it. The damage is just too low. Even in act 1 hell, things take about 4-5 hits from my hydra to die. Compare that to something like meteor or fireball, both of which could kill them in 1-2 hits.

You can find a calc here (http://stud4.tuwien.ac.at/~e9325732/skillcalc.html) that will let you work out your potential damage.

[warding]

Personally, I would advise against hydra.

My current sorc is 1.09, orb/hydra. Her hydra is about level 33 I think, and it's damage sucks, less than 1000 per hit. You could of course get this higher in 1.10 with synergies, but even so, hydra lacks in one important respect - killing speed.

Sure it's safe, if you can hide and cast it at a distance, but if you want to fight the ancients for example, forget it. The damage is just too low. Even in act 1 hell, things take about 4-5 hits from my hydra to die. Compare that to something like meteor or fireball, both of which could kill them in 1-2 hits.

You can find a calc here (http://stud4.tuwien.ac.at/~e9325732/skillcalc.html) that will let you work out your potential damage.

I had a orb/nova/hydra sorc for 1.09 most fun char I've ever played :) But i dumped her since she can't match my meteorb sorc in 1.10.