Hydra/cold = Best MF sorc. superior to meteorb or bliz/firewall de

[ares]

I have a FO/Hydra sorc.. 20 points in Hydra/FB/FM. I reach ~1.5k damage.
Hydra is fun (very cool, too) and all, but I end up using FO and fireball when I'm mf'ing, since they're faster.
Hydra is a pain in the a**. You spend 10 seconds setting them up, and even when you have 4 of them, you have to babysit and keep on casting them.

OT: I wish Blizzard will 'fix' Hydra.. like remove the cast timer, and instead just limit it to 4/5 Hydras. That way, you get maximum firepower in an instant without being OP.

[RabidRat]

I haven't quite forgotten the trek to building wealth and it still surprises me to think of what I came from to what I use now.

One plan of action one might consider is key running. Since a keyset equals a pul, and 3 keysets go for an hr, it can help one get the gear he or she needs. An added bonus is that while going for those tkeys, the countess may drop hrs herself.

what's a keyset?

[harrypotterbaals]

what's a keyset?

A keyset is these 3 keys:
Key of Terror from in Hell, The Countess (Act 1, Tower Cellar 5)
Key of Hate from in Hell, The Summoner (Act 2, Arcane Sanctuary)
Key of Destruction in Hell, from Nihlathalk (Act 5, Halls of Vaught)

This guide should help explain it all.

[Ddzang]

I think I will make this sorc as my first character. I'm about to start playing again and I want a MF character first so I can get gear for my other characters later on. Think this would be a good choice?

[Kyrandia]

I'd say there are more efficient MF sorc builds available. Pure Blizzard and Meteorb/Orb-it-aller come to mind.

[Ddzang]

I just want to run Andy and Meph, would a pure Blizz be the best? Or Meteorb?

[Kyrandia]

Both will do fine. Pure Blizzard is probably faster against Meph, althoug Meteorb may be faster against Andy.
However another thing to consider is that there are many cold immune monsters in Hell difficulty. You will have to teleport past them or wait until your merc kills them (which can become quite tedious, especially if your merc has mediocre gear). That's why I prefer dual-element myself.

[Felix]

I'm having fun with a Hydra/Chainlightning build atm, allthough it became quite alot stronger when I made infinity, it's not a bad build.

I went for Max Light mastery, Chainlightning and lightning maxed. Maxed Hydra and am now putting rest into firemastery.

My Hydras still do around 1500 damage as I have stacked +skills everywhere I could, firefacets in Escutchas and Shako, Chains of Honour for armor. I retain +117 fast cast. Whats good about this build is that I can spam chainlightning while Hydra is on cooldown. And use Lightning against bosses alongside Hydra of course.

I find Hydras very good as a second attack especially against nasty ranged mobs.

[DudSpud]

I like orb better also for this build, but it depends where you plan to play. There is a discussion of orb vs. blizzard here. I think tweety says it best:
Thats comparing apples and pears. Blizzard is more powerfull against groups and large targets like act bosses, but it can take a while to kill a single skeleton. FO is more powerfull against single targets.

In my experience, Blizzard is easier to use on bosses, but if you learn to stay the right distance away, so that the orb "explodes" on the boss, orb rocks. This is especially true if you are comparing 20 Orb vs. 20 Blizz with no synergies, and in this case Orb is also much better in crowds.

You are likely right when you say that for your build, Orb is probably the better choice, but I would have to test the timer interference between Hydra and Orb (and Blizz for that matter).

In short, if you are only dumping 20 + prereqs in cold, Orb pwns Blizz.

On fighting cold and fire immunes, a good strategy is to spam them with telekinesis to keep them in hit recovery lock while your merc finishes them.

Right on. I play SP HC, so it's just me and Waheed, and there is little margin for error. I routinely use TK to help pin dual immunes, and it works like a champ.

As always, thank you for the support and comments!

Hey, thanks for posting your intriguing build and being cool with criticism. Oh, and thanks for NOT posting a build that is built around uberleet gear. While we may disagree on some points, you raise some very interesting ideas, and I thank you for that. Believe it or not, my next build is going to be a HydraOrber....

Good luck, TehSpud

[Kaleban]

I started a Hydra/FO sorc a while back, and have to say that many people are downplaying its strengths when comparing to builds like Meteorb, Blizz, Lit and so on. ESPECIALLY in HC, which is all I play.

The tactical advantage of Hydra by itself makes it a great skill, even if they're hitting FI monsters, you know where to start sending FO/GSpikes.

The aformentioned builds may be better in a pure numbers sense, but for the life of me I can't stand Blizzard. Its only good in a very few situations, has a cast timer, and frequently doesn't even hit a thing, which makes its listed damage irrelevant.

Meteor as well has a cast timer, and an "approach" delay, and while not difficult to learn, is still quite useless against mobs that are extra fast in hell.

Lightning is really good everywhere IF you can get your hands on an Infinity, which legit players may have a tough time doing. But a build that requires high end gear IMHO is not really a build, its a substandard character that only works due to overpowered gear.

The beauty of this build, is varied. You have FO, which even unsynergized and with moderate plus skills is still powerful even in Hell. You have Fireball, and with both points in Fire Mastery and later Firebolt, is a decently powerful spamming spell. And you have Hydra, which is useful under so many conditions its rediculous.

Yes, you have two timered spells, but in general, in the late game phase, you'll only be using one or the other based on the situation, just like any other dual element build. Hydra/FB for CI, and FO for FI. Your choice when there are LI.

The build works untwinked or dressed to the nines, which makes it superior to other builds that require high end gear or +20 skills, and things like Torch and Annhilus.

And most importantly, its fun to play a build that is both effective and not your standard cookiecutter. I should mention that I also play hybrid Sins and Zons, and like versatility in all my characters, so I may be biased!