Which fire skill to use (only have 35-40 points to spare)

[jart]

Hi Guys,

I have just started building a new sorc and I anticipate having only 35-40 skill points left over when I have finished sorting out my main attack (cold tree).

I need a way to deal with cold immunes and was wondering what your advice would be. I am considering hydra as I could pump 20 into Hydra and 15 into FM. Hydra doesn't seem to have any super powerful synergy bonuses, so I figure that I won't be losing much killing power by not "specialising in" hydra. I have noted though from a few of the posts here that people find hydras a bit slow in hell with a few ppl in game.

Other Info:
* My sorc will have 5-7 +skills (still deciding).
* Will be using a tanking merc

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[toader]

Well, the best bang for your buck would be firewall.

Let us know a little more about your cold tree also so we can help decifer whats going on.

[jart]

Well, the best bang for your buck would be firewall.

Let us know a little more about your cold tree also so we can help decifer whats going on.

Thanks for the reply Toader. I am trying out a glacial spike sorc just for fun (impetus was having the uniq belt drop that has +3 gs). Figure I need to pump at least 20 points into a synergy to get the dmg to a decent level, so that's 20 gs, 20 synergy + 10+ CM. Doesn't leave me with a great deal of points as my chars tend to slow down levelling at about 85.

I considered firewall, but that would mean I need a way to keep the critters in place. Not 100% sure how well my merc/tank is going to survive against some of the faster moving, harder hitting critters in hell. Thinking I will go with a HF merc, for the slowing effect on even cold immune monsters.

[Soepgroente]

I considered firewall, but that would mean I need a way to keep the critters in place.
Glacial spike freezes :drool:

Anyway, a mercenary is good. All ranged attackers will stand still if you simply dodge their attacks and throw a fire wall once in a while.

[jart]

The fire skill I choose will be used almost solely for taking down cold immunes, so no freezing from glacial spike for them. That is why I initially discounted firewall as the fire skill of choice, my thinking being that I might have a hard time trying to keep the critters standing in the firewall without the gs to freeze them :)

Thanks for the replies and advice thus far. Much appreciated.

[warding]

Firewall hasnt improved since the patch, so isnt unsynergized meteor at least comparable to it?

[jart]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the advice and opinions. Reviewing my skill plan I realised that it might be possible to make my secondary attack from the lightning tree - that is, Chain Lightning. It seems to do respectable dmg unsynergised (and synergies are only 4% per skill point anyway).

My thoughts at the moment are as follows:
1) Hydras - I like the auto aiming of hydras and they seem to have respectable dmg. Might be a bit slower than other skills in dealing with packs of cold immunes. Seems like a decent single monster (eg. boss) killer.
2) Chain Lightning - Would be good for dealing with crowds, but maybe not so good dealing with solo monsters or bosses. Question over casting speed (planning to have 70% to hit the 63% bp).

Leaning towards hydras still at this time, but open to advice as to why CL or another skill might be better.

Thanks again for any advice/opinions offered.

[wise_man]

I'm not sure which is better (most will say CL), but Hydra is sure a hell lot of fun. :flip:

[Superhal]

i would say anything but hydra and nova.

nothing works great in full player games, a few of the fully synergized skills are not bad.

you might want to try gs in hell multiplayer games first. i use gs often on my blizz sorc and it's not a good killer in p8, and it always drains my mana dry. (i mainly use it to keep my party mates and merc alive vs lister/ventar.)

also, some mobs are immune to the freeze, like gloams and frenzytaurs.

[jart]

I realise that GS is a little underpowered compared to blizz/fo, but just wanted to play a sorc build that was a litte bit different (found the +3 GS uniq belt and a +2 sorc, +2blizz, +3gs, 20%fcr rare orb and felt I had to make a GS sorc to make use of them :)

[lextalionis]

Firewall hasnt improved since the patch, so isnt unsynergized meteor at least comparable to it?

Meteors if they stack would be comparable, but the nice thing about FW is that it doesn't need a synergy. Remember that FM is a synergy for all Fire Skills. Firewall is a very good skill. With some plus skills you will see it really shoot up in damage. Its a decent skill. In 1.09 it was the second best skill. Now its behind Enchant, Fireball, and Meteor. But its still probably 4th and doesn't have a synergy. Plus I think that GS will work well with it. I think that would be a really interesting build.