Meteorb or fireballorb?

[Flamme]

I was planning on makeing a meteorb, but as I look at the synergies I notice that fireball gets 14% increaed dmg from firebolt(and 14% from meteor too, while meteor only gets 5% from both fireball and firebolt. Would it be better to use fireball as the main spell or will meteor still be better(assuming we max atleast fireball and meteor)?

[hubb]

"Meteorb" is a bit of a misnomer - you actually always use Fire Ball as your main spell when playing this type of dual-tree build.

You can go either way. The prerequisites for Meteor means you have 3 less precious points to spend and it can be hard to use if you aren't good with hotkeys, but it is very useful against some groups of monsters. It's up to you.

[gakky]

I agree. Fireball is far more powerful and is a much faster killer. Meteor has more use if you don't have great gear. You use it to kill without putting yourself in as much danger. Meteor is more of a strategic spell. It confuses monsters making them move instead of attacking. It also has a bigger area of damage, although at high levels the afterburn damage is small. Try to get tal set+magefist and 35%fcr spirit shield.

[ayex]

The best billd is firewall/orb. You can actually rise all of the needed skills to the max unlike mete/xx/orb.

[magicrectangle]

You can actually rise all of the needed skills to the max unlike mete/xx/orb.

Believe it or not, that is not actually the primary criterion for "best build." Good builds kill fast, and are nimble. Firewall can certainly kill things, but it is clumsy to use when compared to fireball.

[ayex]

Nope, It ll kill faster than ball/mete you just need s/o to stop things - a merc. Especially for multiple monsters surrounding your merc. And you can go Fw/orb with naked char and be effective. This is especially good if you start from scratch on the ladder.

[gakky]

Firewall has 2 synergies same as fireball. Same number of points needed to max.

Also when you do max these out, with decent equip firewall does 17k per second, compared to fireball 10k 3 times per second (or meteor 20k every 1.2 secs plus afterburn). You can stack firewalls to get slightly more damage in the long run if monsters stay in the stacked walls the whole time, but with a casting delay of 1.4 seconds anything would have been dead by fireball.
I've tried firewall. It's much slower at killing even at the best of times. At the worst of times you can't hit things. By itself meteor is better.
Best killer is fireball with occasional meteor when needed. I kill hell Diablo in less than 2 seconds with just 1 meteor and 5 fireballs. 113,812 hit points 50%fire resist, -105% fire resist from Infinity/talorb/facet -> -55% resist 11k ball gets 17k effective damage per ball + 1 meteor hitting whan he appears for 34k effective damage.

[ayex]

Firewall has 2 synergies same as fireball. Same number of points needed to max.

Also when you do max these out, with decent equip firewall does 17k per second, compared to fireball 10k 3 times per second (or meteor 20k every 1.2 secs plus afterburn). You can stack firewalls to get slightly more damage in the long run if monsters stay in the stacked walls the whole time, but with a casting delay of 1.4 seconds anything would have been dead by fireball.
I've tried firewall. It's much slower at killing even at the best of times. At the worst of times you can't hit things. By itself meteor is better.
Best killer is fireball with occasional meteor when needed. I kill hell Diablo in less than 2 seconds with just 1 meteor and 5 fireballs. 113,812 hit points 50%fire resist, -105% fire resist from Infinity/talorb/facet -> -55% resist 11k ball gets 17k effective damage per ball + 1 meteor hitting whan he appears for 34k effective damage.

A few important points you are missing:

1. 1% dmg per level synergy of the 2nd synergy skill is useless so you SAVE 20 points of not rising it. ( 60 pts fire + 45 left for 20 Forb + 15 C Mastery)
2. This is a almost naked char with a few +skills on the items.
3. Playing with firewall takes some skill unlike pumping the left button of the mouse over the enemy.

P.S. You can push through hell only with Cold with no items. So full fire bild with no items - GL on hell

[darkstarhub]

I love my FB/FO sorc. I actually prefer her over my Frenzy barb, but not by much! I can't say how fast she is compared to meteorb. For one, I have never played a meteorb, and my playstyle is not bot-like speed, so the two builds would play fairly equal for me I am sure. I am using full Tal's and everything else is MF gear, except for Ravenfrost. I know CBF is not top priority for sorcs, but my playstyle requires mobility. And at 507 MF, 30% more MF is not going to make a difference anyway.
Read the orbitaller build if you want to go the FB/FO route. That thread has alot of good info.