Call me crazy, but...Hydra sorc?

[diablo loves donutz]

Hi guys.

Well, I'm starting to get a little bored on bnet and rather than make another cookie cutter build to occupy my time, I'm thinking of doing something outrageous. Yes...I want to make a Hydra sorc :azn:

I was thinking the setup could go something like this.

Stats:
Strength-enough to wear gear (Spirit mainly)
Dex-None
Vit-rest in to here
Energy-with the gear, I don't think any will be necessary.

Skills:
20 Hydra
20 Fire Mastery
20 Fire Bolt
20 Fire Ball
1 Tele
1 Frozen armor
0 or 1 Energy shield(I was never a big fan of this, but I was wondering what you guys think of it in this build)
Pre-reqs

Gear:
Helm-Facet'd Shako
Armor-Coh
Weapon-Facet'd Eschutas
Shield-Spirit
Belt-Arachs
Ammy-Maras
Gloves-Magies
Rings-Sojs
Boots-Eth Treks
Charms-Anni, torch, and Fire skillers

Well I was just wondering what you guys though of my setup and to be honest, I would really like to take her into some duel rooms and just have fun.

Thanks for lsitening.

-Donutz

[PlayWithHonor]

Hmmm... I've always wanted to see such a build tricked out to see what it could do. A fully synergized Hydra with +29 to fire skills from equip/charms would yield:

Hydra
Mana cost: 44
Cast Delay: 2 Seconds
Fire damage: 4838 - 5382 (ø5110.5)
Duration: 10 Seconds

Now I think this damage is per fire ball that each Hydra head shoots and each Hydra has 3 heads. You can get no more than 5 Hydras going at any one time due to cast delay/duration. So, each barrage delivered by a full army of Hydras would be (5 Hydras x 3 Heads x 5,110.5 Avg Fire Bolt Dmg = 76,657.

That should be fun... let us know how that goes.

[diablo loves donutz]

How come when I crunch the numbers for hydra I get 4766-5301?

Because there is 3 from eschutas, 2 from coh, 2 from shako, 2 from maras, 2 from spirit, 1 from arach, 2 from sojs, 1 from magies, 1 from anni, 3 from torch, and 9 from skillers plus 1 from cta which would result in +29 to fire skills, correct?

[FrostBurn]

A Hydra sorc is certainly Hell viable. Patience is the key with this build. Fully synergised, and with +skills from your gear and skillers, your Hydra will be doing significant damage. Each Hydra will last for 10 seconds, and with a casting delay of 2 seconds, you'll have a total of 5 Hydras present at any time. Considering that each Hydra has 3 heads, and each head will fire a firebolt per 24 frames, that amounts to approximately 30 firebolts per Hydra.

The gear selection looks good, in that you'll have at least 105% FCR, which will help with spamming your secondary attack, the spammable Fireball. Do use it as a back-up when not casting Hydra, as it will be adequately synergised by Firebolt and FM.

I personally would not use ES for your build, as one hard point in TK is too much of a mana drain for my liking. However, one could argue that since you are max vita, and relying on ranged spells to do the damage to enemies, you could get away with ES and the occasional loss of mana from a 1 point ES/TK. That's all fine and good... just be sure to avoid getting hit by multiple lightning bolts from Gloams or burning arrows from Burning Dead Archers.

Don't forget 1 point in Static Field.

Your only problem with PvM is fire immunes. 20 in FO and 1 in CM (+skills will take it close to slvl 17) is an option, but that will be at the expense of perhaps 10 synergy points to Hydra. Alternatively, just tele past all the FIs, or allow the merc to deal with them.

By the way, how did the hammerdin go?

Edit: This thread will give you more information on the mechanics of Hydra (i.e. read SSoG's posts from page 2 onwards).

[PlayWithHonor]

How come when I crunch the numbers for hydra I get 4766-5301?

Because there is 3 from eschutas, 2 from coh, 2 from shako, 2 from maras, 2 from spirit, 1 from arach, 2 from sojs, 1 from magies, 1 from anni, 3 from torch, and 9 from skillers plus 1 from cta which would result in +29 to fire skills, correct?

Picky, picky.. hehe.

I didn't actually count up your skill points.. just used 20 to see what would happen. I updated it though to use 29 now.

:smiley:

[FrostBurn]

How come when I crunch the numbers for hydra I get 4766-5301?

Because there is 3 from eschutas, 2 from coh, 2 from shako, 2 from maras, 2 from spirit, 1 from arach, 2 from sojs, 1 from magies, 1 from anni, 3 from torch, and 9 from skillers plus 1 from cta which would result in +29 to fire skills, correct?

I came up with this:
Current Skill Level: 49
Duration: 10 seconds
Hydra Fire Damage: 4838-5382
Mana Cost: 44

Don't forget that your fire facets and Eschuta's +% fire skill damage will further increase Hydra's damage output.

[diablo loves donutz]

Thanks for the help guys, I really do appreciate it.

For PvM I will be using an infinity merc so that should hopefully clear up a lot of issues.

I will definently try to keep you guys updated on her progress.

Oh yea, about the hammerdin Frost, he's going very well and I think I might make a , "How's my hammerdin looking?" thread or something of that nature so you can see his stats, gear, etc.

Btw, with the hydra sorc, this is all for fun. I just want to go into a baal room or a duel room and people to be in awe of her and not that it's any consilation...but gloat to people you beat in duels that they just lost to a hydra sorc lol.

[blinkyvxx]

this build would be a lot better with a infinity wielding merc for -75 fire resists dont forget, i thoghut bout doing a orb hydra or something, hydra would only be 1300-1500 or so with +13 skills, but with infinity might be ok?

[diablo loves donutz]

Yea my merc setup will be eth infinity cv, eth fort, and eth andys...

Argh I hate this part, have to find a char on acct to delete to make char and need to think of a name...

[Flaming Banana]

make the name "Flaming-Donuts"

itll sound cool when you kill someone!