1.13 Hyrda?

[DevilbIrd]

1.13 Hyrda?

Well with all the increases to Hydra's for 1.13 would a fully synergised Hydra with a FO or Blizzard (not many synergies so enough leftover points) be hell viable? I tried it out in the PTR and got ~1.5 Hydra damage without +skills and then with the large boost to their attack speed and 5 at a time would mean more damage?

 

[Swamigoon]

Re: 1.13 Hyrda?

It's my understanding that Hydra attack speed is actually reduced, not increased as advertised, in the 1.13beta.

 

[droid]

Re: 1.13 Hyrda?

It was reduced in 1.13 but they fixed it in 1.13b so it should be faster now.

The problem is that Hydra, FO, and Blizzard are all timered spells, so you couldnt cast two at the same time...you'd either spam FO, or you'd spam Hydra, but you couldnt do both together.

Dual ele sorcs need one timered spell and one spammable spell (like FO+FB or FO+CL or Blizz+FB). The problem is that Hydra requires a fair amount of points spent in synergy, but the spammable lightning spells require even more, and the spammable cold spells dont do nearly enough damage in Hell, and they also require a fair amount of synergy points as well. There just isnt enough SPs to go around to get a viable second element to go with Hydra.

 

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

Re: 1.13 Hyrda?

Funny, I've played FO-Hydra before 1.13 and they worked great. Oh, you do have a fireball as a hydra sorc too. With the reduction in casting delays, you may not be casting it much though.

An unsynergized FO is fine for fire immunes.

 

[droid]

Re: 1.13 Hyrda?

Not saying you cant make it work, just that you cant use them both at full capacity together. Every time you cast FO, it means one less Hydra cast. Every time you cast Hydra, its one less FO cast. You're essentially half a Hydra sorc and half a FO sorc, but never a Hydra/FO sorc at the same time

Yes, you have FB to cast in between, but then you're either doubling up on Fire (FB + Hydra) or you're effectively a poorly synergized Meteorber (FB + FO)

 

[Meanstreak]

Re: 1.13 Hyrda?

Completely viable! It just takes some work and understanding. People have been so pampered by the "no synergies required" frozen orb. However, since Infinity came out, Fire has made a comeback.

While lightning is more surefire of an immunity to break, fire has a pretty high chance of also being broken. This makes any lightning/fire sorc very successful, as she will never have to worry about immunities again.

But they are right about the timered spells. Yes you can do Hydra and Frozen Orb, but it is a either-or thing, not something you run at the same time. And although most of the lightning spells do have a steep skill point requirement, one certain skill Nova does not.

At higher levels, the damage scales better than most lightning skills. It doesn't keep the 1 minimum damage like the others. Maxed out it isn't 20k damage or anything, but with good cast rate and Infinity, spamming Novas after a barrage of Static Field while four or five Hydras attack everyone under Conviction's influence will merit a pretty nice amount of carnage.

 

[DevilbIrd]

Re: 1.13 Hyrda?

I was dueling in 1.13 and found that once I could cast FO, switch cast a hydra, switch, etc. and the timing delays worked pretty nicely. It was the normal cast, spam spell, cast, but it still worked...

 

[ktchong]

Re: 1.13 Hyrda?

Hydra/Orb seems to be the safest build. A while ago, I browsed through the "Guardian" list for hardcore sorceresses, and Hydra/Orb sorc was the most common sorceress builds that had become Guardians.

 

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

Re: 1.13 Hyrda?

I was dueling in 1.13 and found that once I could cast FO, switch cast a hydra, switch, etc. and the timing delays worked pretty nicely. It was the normal cast, spam spell, cast, but it still worked...

Orb keeps things chilled for a long time so you don't really need to alternate it from a PvM point of view. Cast it to chill the monsters and get your hydras laid out. Latter in a a hydra-FO build you'll have a decent enough fireball to make it worth your while to spam in between casts.

Hydra sorcs will also have a low level but useful enchant since that is a prereq.

Not being so dependant on manna also means you can go without an insight on your merc.

But Hydra sorcs are not suited for everyone's tastes. If I start up again on hardcore that'll be my first character though.