05-30-2004, 10:48 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-30-2004, 10:49 PM by [wcip]Angel.)
Hydra at lvl 20 with 1 in fire mastery.
Well, what should I say?
The damage sucks. Not as much as nova, but still..
I don't regret maxing hydra. It does come in handy when I'm facing cold immunes. I was playing hell difficulty act 2 and I managed to get through the act, but those big red belly-monsters were awful. I used to hate scarabs because of their lightning. Now I can't wait to see them, as both frozen orb and hydra worked fine against them.
It takes time. Hydra has a very slow "reload" time, so you find yourself having to wait for about 2 seconds between each cast, which can be a bit tedious. It also makes things quite hard if you're facing a fast boss-group.
The damage blows, it takes forever to cast a decent bunch of them, but there are *some* positive aspects.
1. I can now kill all monsters. Cold immunes, beware!
2. It's actually quite fun placing the hydras at strategic points in the landscape. After a while you develop your own tactics, like form a square with hydras in each corner and teleport around the square while the monsters follow, getting hit by the hydras. Another tactic I found useful in the valley of the magi was to cast a bunch of hydras, teleport ahead, and 'draw' the crowd into the awaiting ambush 'o hydra.
3. By being able to place a turret of fire wherever you want, you can fire around corners and in other tricky places where you normally wouldn't have access.
For example: You never even have to see the summoner, you just put a few hydras around him, and he's toast. No more firewall o' death for me!
As I said, it takes time. Frozen orb is still extraordinarily powerful, nova is still useless, hydra lies somewhere in the middle, but closer to nova than frozen orb.
I can't imagine I'll be using hydra in act 3. All those little monsters running around. Hydra relies heavily on a stationary target. Otherwise, there's no point to the skill.
I am now lvl 78, and I will continue boosting fire mastery to see if I can make this skill more useful.
Well, what should I say?
The damage sucks. Not as much as nova, but still..
I don't regret maxing hydra. It does come in handy when I'm facing cold immunes. I was playing hell difficulty act 2 and I managed to get through the act, but those big red belly-monsters were awful. I used to hate scarabs because of their lightning. Now I can't wait to see them, as both frozen orb and hydra worked fine against them.
It takes time. Hydra has a very slow "reload" time, so you find yourself having to wait for about 2 seconds between each cast, which can be a bit tedious. It also makes things quite hard if you're facing a fast boss-group.
The damage blows, it takes forever to cast a decent bunch of them, but there are *some* positive aspects.
1. I can now kill all monsters. Cold immunes, beware!
2. It's actually quite fun placing the hydras at strategic points in the landscape. After a while you develop your own tactics, like form a square with hydras in each corner and teleport around the square while the monsters follow, getting hit by the hydras. Another tactic I found useful in the valley of the magi was to cast a bunch of hydras, teleport ahead, and 'draw' the crowd into the awaiting ambush 'o hydra.
3. By being able to place a turret of fire wherever you want, you can fire around corners and in other tricky places where you normally wouldn't have access.
For example: You never even have to see the summoner, you just put a few hydras around him, and he's toast. No more firewall o' death for me!
As I said, it takes time. Frozen orb is still extraordinarily powerful, nova is still useless, hydra lies somewhere in the middle, but closer to nova than frozen orb.
I can't imagine I'll be using hydra in act 3. All those little monsters running around. Hydra relies heavily on a stationary target. Otherwise, there's no point to the skill.
I am now lvl 78, and I will continue boosting fire mastery to see if I can make this skill more useful.
