Hydra: Skill +2 synergies + masteryOriginally Posted by Dabljuh
Blizzard: Skill +3 synergies + mastery (although cold mastery should never be maxed)
Sorry, doesn't work
No, oh no.
I read that post. Something like this: A single target standing still, lining up for perfect orb hits, takes mildly more damage from a single-synergized orb than from a single synergized blizzard. Oh wow. I mean, who'd have thought. In every other situation, orb is absolute weaksauce compared to blizzard. Groups, moving targets, you name it, blizzard burns them down while orb at best bores them to death. Also: Anyone who synergizes orb needs his CD key revoked.
Orb is a timered attack. Hydra is a timered attack. Blizzard is a timered attack. Orb + Hydra don't work. Fball+Hydra/Fball+Orb works, and Glacial+Hydra/Glacial+Blizzard work. Essentially, taking orb forces you to take Fball, and fball sucks as a synergy for hydra (3%) and does piss weak damage without synergies for itself.
Furthermore we're talking about a dual tree build. You shoot at targets that are mixes from immunes / nonimmunes for whatever skill you're using. Orb is easily completely negated by a few immunes in the way, where as blizzard doesn't care as to what's in its area, it hits everything the same.
The only problem with BlizzHydra is that glacial doesn't do damage, i.e. you don't have a non-timered damage spell. The plus side is that glacial freezes stuff and so you don't need block or particularly high hitpoints. Ice blast is an alternative in that it does do damage, but doesn't freeze scores of things as they run through your blizzard / hydra fields.
Because you can't use a skill without maxing its synergy, no matter how trivially small the synergy bonus is, right? Let me guess, you also synergize FOrb.
You're entitled to your opinion, of course, but I'll take my synergized orb sorc, and keep my CD key too.
It's interesting you mention the casting delay of these skills, because that was my next thought. Orb/Hydra already suffers from annoyingly long casting delays, yet Blizzard's delay is 80% longer than Orb's. While you have a spammable attack, you acknowledge that it does negligible damage. Spike won't freeze everything you come across, and with the weaker Hydra, I can't see this being any safer or more powerful.
Then again, I never much liked the Orb/Hydra idea, so perhaps I'm automatically biased.
There's a sticky that suggests Hydra/Orb.
ok, lets go at this from a different angle.
If Hydra works nicely synergized, it'll also work nicely enough without any synergies because the synergies add so little per point. Without synergies, you have some 40-60 points left for another skill, preferrably one that isn't fire.
Different angle. The skill that should accompany hydra has the following qualities:
a) It's non-timered and spammable in between hydra cooldowns
b) It must be possible to use on the left mouse button because hydra is going to be on the right
c) It's not a fire spell
d) it has a huge damage output, enough to clear the screen within a matter of seconds in a populated game. This because hydra is ineffective if FI are in the mix, so these FI must be eliminated ASAP.
e) Conversely, the skill must not be affected by immunes present.
Orb has b/c
Blizzard has c/d/e
Nova has a/c/e
Charged Bolt has a/b/c
Lightning has a/b/c/e
Chain Lightning has a/b/c
120% is still more than you think.
I've read the sticky. I believe the general finding was that, while it looks okay on paper, in practice it's generally slow and crippled by casting delays. This post pretty much sums up my experiences with Hydra.
Regarding the synergy issue, I think you're dismissing them without really considering all the factors. A level 35 Orb with +15% cold skill damage from Tal's does about 577 damage per shard. Synergized, this goes up to 793. That's a difference of 216. Assuming Conviction and/or CM have reduced all target resistances to -100, the difference becomes 432. Now multiply that by the number of shards that hit targets on a well-placed Orb, and we're looking at around 8,000 damage difference, per second.
Likewise, a level 35 Hydra with level 35 FM deals 1,234 per bolt. Fully synergized we have 2,562, a difference of 1,328. Glossing over the affects of Tal's and/or Conviction and assuming your target's resist has been reduced to exactly 0%, that's a difference of around 3,984 per second per Hydra. With only 2 Hydras out the difference between synergized and unsynergized is 7,968 per second. If you can reduce your target's resistance below 0%, the difference can become much more.
These are both highly underestimated skills, with highly underestimated synergies. Though, I don't think they work all that well in combination.
I have one, shes badass. I use her to kill modders who join pvp. the only thing about pvm is infinity on your merc is needed. I do 5k each hydra and about 11k with fireball. I still need to faucet my shako and chuta. But you basically have it right
If you wanna see her in action add me and message me im usually on, Bakerskate22
Made one was fun fun fun and redid to save points ex-ladder-season as the mid to high to end items with effects and charges work so well - I will say one of the best AI helpful spells this Orb and Thunderstorm triggering will kill a lot.
I love seeing a SSoG post!
even if it is 2007 date.
You kick *** - I PM OK?
Last edited by BobCox2; 23-02-2013 at 07:11.
http://www.diablofans.com/page/tools...l0l0l0l29lal00
This build seems solid enough for dueling. firebolt/ball will be main and hydra will be used off cooldown instead of meteor.
Lol such an old thread though.
Last edited by thewrathofshane; 31-03-2013 at 09:28.
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