Blizzard or Frozen Orb? I’m not interested in a full Synergy with blizzard, as I will be using a dual element build. So,
- Level 20 Blizzard and Level 20 Cold Mastery
Or - Level 20 Frozen Orb and Level 20 Cold Mastery
and why?
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There’s something about blizzard that just doesn’t click with me. Orb on the other hand is awesome and I love its hit radius and targeting the explosion for max dog is satisfying
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20 FO and ideally 1 CM but enough hard points to get it to -100% cold resistance if you don’t have the gear yet. Reason is +skill items wouldn’t boost Blizzard’s synergies but Cold Mastery does benefit from +skills gear.
FO is more fire and forget too that usually plays nicer with your second element. Though, personally, can’t stand FO with Meteor sharing a cool down but plenty people here make it work for them.
FO can either chill an entire group or focus an enemy for damage depending how you aim it.
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I guess this is question of preference… Personally I liked since D2 inception - Orb (more predictable damage). About mastery - you need to get enough points (which +skills) so you hit mark -150% (you won’t benefit above that mark)
With second element things get trickier - most choose fire but here is thing - Meteor like Blizzard takes a bit practice before you learn use it … Fireball on other hand (or Firewall ;)) is no brain use and with enough FCR and maxed synergies very deadly.
But about argument between Blizzard and Orb. Here strict my opinion (which is not necessary right one) - Orb much more efficient against single targets and in close quarters (read than you attack from close distance) … it not expecting from you use of teleport at master level you just plow through everything that is not cold immune that can’t be broken by mastery… Blizzard potentially more efficient on open spaces - where you set Blizzard off and teleport out. My personal conflict with blizzard spell that it not always hit (unlike FO) and it actually takes time before massive damage will kicks in (much like Meteor vs. Fireball)
Try replace Meteor with Fireball … (and keep synergies 
)
My choice for cold hybrid is 20 blizz 20 ice bolt 1 frozen orb 1 mastery.
If you want to use a controller, Frozen Orb plays much better than Blizzard imho. When using a controller, the blizzard is cast centered on the target and often mobs move out in very short order.
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Just started again and find that Blizz is the way to go for a first new character or hybrid with 20 points into Ice Blast. Then a few into cold mastery. Ice Blast freezes targets around merc keeping him alive and pumps out dmg with Blizz.
Then pick your poison on the rest, I’m currently also hydra just to deal with immunes and also keeps me out of the way. I can farm Eld, Shenk and the cold immunes run in static, hydra merc finish easy fast.
I just love ice blast so much, feel it’s really underrated. It’s borderline OP too eventually with the right gear.
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Personally I go the FO route because I hate the fact that you cannot bind blizz in left mouse click lol
I also find it easier to hit mobs with FO, I have tried lightning as the second element which works but fireball might be the better choice over meteor since you don’t need to time the drop of the meteor
Honestly, I would say it is your play style which makes the difference. FO feels way more active than Blizz, I would also said it is more versatile. Additionally, at least in case of FO/FB I believe it is safer, as you always have option of instant slow, or putting mob in recovery animation. For me, after I don’t even know how many sorcs played, FO/FB is the only one still feeling remotely fun.
I used to use blizzard and I found that I had a hard time targeting with bliz. I respected to FO and it is SO much easier with the controller. I still use blizzard with mouse and key board
Don’t do 20 points cold mastery as secondary spec. It is a waste. -100% is quite good enough
And without synergy, FO Trump Bliz no question asked.
There’s lots of posts here comparing the 2 but they all keep missing one thing about Blizzard.
You can do off screen casting with Blizzard, meaning if you know how to position yourself such that the monster is just off screen, you can place your mouse at the edge and cast. It will kill the monster without it attacking you.
This is particularly useful in Baal’s throne against his waves. There’s a point where you can stand and take out his waves that are not cold immune without breaking a sweat. Lots of other areas/situations you can do this as well like the councils in durance level 3, etc.
You can’t do off screen casting with FO as it travels ahead and only half screen at that (the shard with split out further of course).
Also, don’t put 20 hardpoints in CM, just enough with all your gear and charms to hit -100 to -150% depending on whether you have other - cold res. gear on. You need to calculate this yourself as no one knows you gear here.
If Cold is your primary elemental I’d go Blizzard, its if secondary I’d go FO.
I run a blizz+ball sorc and a light+orb sorc.
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Only time off screen is actually useful is when you use maphack and knows where the mobs are before head…otherwise you are just wasting time casting a spell with long cd.
And tbh…with how you cast a off screen blizzard and waiting for it to finished when it skipped 30% of mobs unhurt. I would have teleport right in front of their face, steam roll them with fireball and move on already
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You don’t need maphack to know where mobs are. The baal waves spawn exactly where you want it all the time no map hack needed - they are other areas as well.
Also, its not about killing completely off screen. You can start killing off screen, and do what you said teleport in to finish off.
Seems lot of folks are just arguing about style of play which is just a personal preference.
Bliz is worse than FO for some style of play, but the opposite is true too.
It depends on your playstyle. If you are the type that likes to get in the face of the monsters, Blizzard is only good if you spam Glacial spike on the side because you’ll be infuriated with how many monsters Blizz misses. That means going full Cold. On the other hand, if you go hybrid, you’ll get around 4k-4.5k Blizzard MAX. Maybe I’m so used to a 10k full Cold Blizz, but a 4k Blizz just doesn’t cut it for me, given how long the CD is. I’m used to monsters getting vaporized even before the first shard hits and hybrid builds with Blizz just feels underpowered. Orb, on the hand, can 1-2 shot most mobs. It turns out to kill much faster than Bliz on a hybrid build.
If you’re the type doesn’t like to facetank mobs, Bliz might offer values.
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Pure blizzard, frozen orb isn’t even remotly close to blizzard. Most people voting for FO are nostalgists from pre 1.10 patch when FO was really the way to go. You can forget FO at p8 where no drop chance is smallest. Blizzard owns in p8, so you lvl better, gsin more experience and more items by playing pure blizzard.
Just get a reaper merc and you’re good to go. Just to give numbers for you, when I do baalrund my blizzard dmg is 11k per shard. There is no way FO can generate anything even close to that in an area no matter how you “aim” ( FO proponents will always argue, you have to aim so the orb explodes just behind a target… when there are 5+targets charging at you 
). That blizz shard hits 3 times before the end of cool down.
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You missing point here
Blizzard not always hit and any fast (or relatively fast) moving target will move out blizzard w/o been hit, second problem unlike Blizzard - Orb don’t need synergies to be effective - blizzard do. With Orb as one of your attacks you don’t need rely much on merc with blizzard … hell yes, you need merc with Decrify or with Holy Freeze Aura to cluster and slow targets to keep them within Blizzard area
I think you never used blizzard’s full potential. You don’t stand around, you cast ice blast nonstop during blizzard’s cool down phase. Mephisto doesn’t last even 3 seconds. You can instantly freeze or kill anything closing in onto you with ice blast ( keep shift pressed, spam with left mouse click). Even with 20 points, blizzard is stronger.
A reaper’s toll doesn’t even cost a pul right now.
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Mephisto is wimp he won’t last same 3 second with Orb/Static - hit 1 orb chop M down to 10-15% with SF spam while waiting on Orb to reset . Here is thing, web sites are wrong - Static DO work on Hell past 50% health of mobs (just try it with Mephisto to see it)
But I was actually talking about different scenarios - like covering with Blizzard mobs that fairly fast moving (Night Lords) that comes in packs or dispersing packs like little goblins in WSK/Nilathak temple catching up them with Blizzard as AOE and Blast with Nuke aren’t do much good - Orbing/SFing them much more efficient