Anyone full hydra?

[Mecrusja]

or at least 20-20FM-20FB
Is there any usefull back-up spell for this setup or am i doomed too
cooporate in a team?I just like the idea of setting some hydrae and
then spam fireballs.
In this context I wondered : What if I use marrowwalk boots-will the hydra
attack my prisons also or only the monsters I've inprisoned :uhhuh:
I would definatively use a holy freeze merchant-and maybe get some
darkness from a stupid lore runeword :clap:
maybe a high lvl static will help out or a bow on switch?
well hope you get the idea people-lots of questions for a lvl 16 sorc but hé
I just love those dragons :p

[Nimbostratus]

There's a reason people don't normally use hydra. That reason is simply: hydra = weak

With 20 points in fire mastery, fire bolt, fireball, and hydra, the damage is only 749-888. With that exact same skill setup, fireball does 1993-2263 damage. Add + 10 skills from equipment, and you have hydra doing 1717-1967 damage. FireBOLT will be doing more damage then, at 2258-2608 with a mana cost of only 2.5.


Just pick a different skill, unless you REALLY want a skill that doesn't allow you to pick the target and does pathetic damage.

[Mecrusja]

There's a reason people don't normally use hydra. That reason is simply: hydra = weak

With 20 points in fire mastery, fire bolt, fireball, and hydra, the damage is only 749-888. With that exact same skill setup, fireball does 1993-2263 damage. Add + 10 skills from equipment, and you have hydra doing 1717-1967 damage. FireBOLT will be doing more damage then, at 2258-2608 with a mana cost of only 2.5.


Just pick a different skill, unless you REALLY want a skill that doesn't allow you to pick the target and does pathetic damage.
That IS pathetic-another funskill messed up by blizzard it seems to me :confused:

[domac]

There's a reason people don't normally use hydra. That reason is simply: hydra = weak While that true it's not that simple .. hydra shoots constantly for a period of 10 secs and you don't have to aim, just put it on the ground. Plus you can have 5 of them active at the same time. It has the potential to do some nice damage. You can use it to scout, to hit targets behind the corners, you can put it on the door so they shoot through closed door (maybe they fixed this). Plus it's fun and gets you some respect :) I woudn't dismiss this skill so easily.

[Epsilon Eyez]

Well, Hydra isn't super bad like Inferno at least. It has some nice application in Hell, although I don't think a Hydra sorc could run through Hell untwinked.

I'm going to try full Hydra once I get some items.

[Venrae]

hell, I'd make one just to have some fun rushing people in norm and nightmare... using exclusively hydra

:D

[AnimeCraze]

If they can reduce casting delays of that thing, it would have been 5 times better.

[Epsilon Eyez]

Yeah, they really should make Hydra more like traps. Traps do more damage AND have no casting delay. How fair is that? At least reduce the casting delay.

[Superhal]

i made one once. it was boring for 3 reasons:

1. weak: whether in norm or hell, you only get the max damage with 4 out. you can't depend on one set killing even 1 monster.

2. slow: like meteor, it has a double delay: cast delay and hit delay. it takes roughly 1/2 a second for the heads to come out and start firing.

3. useless: more monsters are immune to fire than other things. also, several quest monsters are guaranteed to be immune to fire every time.

[mattguy]

There's a reason people don't normally use hydra. That reason is simply: hydra = weak

With 20 points in fire mastery, fire bolt, fireball, and hydra, the damage is only 749-888. With that exact same skill setup, fireball does 1993-2263 damage. Add + 10 skills from equipment, and you have hydra doing 1717-1967 damage. FireBOLT will be doing more damage then, at 2258-2608 with a mana cost of only 2.5.


Just pick a different skill, unless you REALLY want a skill that doesn't allow you to pick the target and does pathetic damage.

You have to see a bigger picture here. As you said with +10 to skills and fully synergized, Hydra damage = 1717-1967 = 1842 average fire damage. Each cast will have 3 Hydra heads and each head will spit maximum of 9 fire bolts. That will equal to 49734 average fire damage. At average you will cast 4 Hydras, the total damage will be equal to 198,936 average fire damage. Plus the skill allows you to cast around corners, casting delay (which is an advantage in my book for Hydra) allows you to have spammable spells, mainly your Fireball and Firebolt (both partially synergized with Fire Mastery) while it auto targets the enemies. If you have high FCR (as I have), you can even have 5 Hydras out at times.

With Frozen Orb as support spell, Hydra is perfect in my book. Do not be deceived by the damage listed. It is per Hydra firebolt per head anyways.

[Kyo]

You have to see a bigger picture here. As you said with +10 to skills and fully synergized, Hydra damage = 1717-1967 = 1842 average fire damage. Each cast will have 3 Hydra heads and each head will spit maximum of 9 fire bolts. That will equal to 49734 average fire damage. At average you will cast 4 Hydras, the total damage will be equal to 198,936 average fire damage. Plus the skill allows you to cast around corners, casting delay (which is an advantage in my book for Hydra) allows you to have spammable spells, mainly your Fireball and Firebolt (both partially synergized with Fire Mastery) while it auto targets the enemies. If you have high FCR (as I have), you can even have 5 Hydras out at times.

Was about to say the same thing. The numbers don't look awfully high but like orb it fire damage a bolt. Untweaked with just maxed syngeries

20 - Fire Mast, Firebolt, Fireball, Hydra = 748 - 888 Fire dam per bolt.

Max dam - 888*9 = 7992 per head * 3 heads = 23976 Possbile fire dam per hydra in a 10 sec duration.

If you can cast 4 hydras on average then you still get a large output of damage if my calculations are correct. :thumbsup:

Couple this with some form of lowering resistance, LR curse or conviction aura and your going to be doing fairely well imo.

[drinkturps]

I've found Hydra to be good fun. Whilst it is not going to set Hell on fire ;) it is very viable in Nightmare. Yes, she's slow, she's more of a stealth character avoiding the big bad monsters casting Hydras up ahead. Once you get it to decent levels you will be impressed by the results.

If you want to have some fun, go for it. You could also make a charged boltress, Hydra combo. If the beasties get to close to you fry them with Charged Bolt. Takes care of immunes then too.

Guaranteed fun if you are not interested in all the best uber leet gear, mind numbing repetitive MF runs and clearing all of hell in 10 mins. (sorry went off on one there!)

Go for it! :thumbsup: and do it hardcore!

[mosconi]

Here are the real numbers to look at. (Hoepfully I did not make bad calculations, sorry if I did, but you will still get the idea.)

Also, to be honest, I was under the impression that each head fired twice per second once they started firing, so if this turns out to be true, simply multiply every number listed by 2, and the total damage in ten seconds becomes HUGE!

Assume you have the following:
Firebolt (1)
Fireball (20)
Fire Mastery (20)
Hydra (20)
+skill items (5) (Most will have more, but there are not too many that will not have at least 5)

Listed Hydra Damage is 864 - 1005 (Average is 934 rounding down)

Hydra had a 2 second delay, and takes 1 second for the hydra to lock on any target, which means every Hydra cast will only be firing for 9 seconds.

So, here is what takes place in a ten second period of time.

Cast Hydra #1

1st second
Hydra #1 locks a target

2nd second
Hydra #1 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #2 is cast.
Total damage in this second is 5604.
Cumulative damage is 5604.

3rd Second
Hydra #1 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #2 locks a target.
Total damage in this second is 5604.
Cumulative damage is 11208.

4th Second
Hydra #1 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #2 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #3 is cast.
Total damage in this second is 11208.
Cumulative damage is 22416

5th Second
Hydra #1 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #2 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #3 locks a target.
Total damage in this second is 11208.
Cumulative damage is 33624.

6th Second
Hydra #1 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #2 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #3 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #4 is cast.
Total damage in this second is 16812.
Cumulative damage is 50436.

7th Second
Hydra #1 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #2 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #3 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #4 locks a target.
Total damage in this second is 16812.
Cumulative damage is 67248.

8th Second
Hydra #1 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #2 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #3 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #4 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #4 is cast.
Total damage in this second is 22416.
Cumulative damage is 89664.

9th Second
Hydra #1 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #2 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #3 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #4 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #5 locks a target.
Total damage in this second is 22416.
Cumulative damage is 112080.

9th Second
Hydra #1 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #2 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #3 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #4 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Hydra #5 fires 3 times base damage. 3 * 934 = 5604
Total damage in this second is 28020.
Cumulative damage is 140100.

Now, You ALSO have a Fireball worth 941-1049 (Average of 995)
If you are dextorous enough to fire two of them on the off seconds (the seconds in which you are waiting for another Hydra to be ready), you can add about 10k Fire damage to what the hydras are doing.

If you are not dealing with Fire Immunes, nothing can stand up to this kind of punishment. If you have a hireling that can tank at all, then most of the shots will hit.

So, sure, Fire Immunes and highly Fire Resistant monsters do present a problem, but to make it sound like Hydra is worthless is simply not true.

[RTB]

Also, to be honest, I was under the impression that each head fired twice per second once they started firing, so if this turns out to be true, simply multiply every number listed by 2, and the total damage in ten seconds becomes HUGE!
Once per 24 frames IIRC. That's once per .96 seconds.

[tranj84cl]

If they can reduce casting delays of that thing, it would have been 5 times better.


Well, in classic there was no casting delay. Though, that made pking with hydra sorcs real easy, especially with the lag generated from having a screen full of hydras ><