Wow, what a cool spell. I heard hydras being compared to the assassins’ traps. Here is my feedback on the hydras, they need to have target priority in the following manner: Bosses>Super uniques> champions>Minions>regular monsters>[Do not fire on fire immunes].
Lastly, most of the assassins’ traps have either AOE and or pierce their targets. So, I thought about adding Fire ball instead of Fire bolt for that AOE. Or give hydras a cone shaped AOE attack that pierces enemies.
i think they are ok , the sorc has more then enough power boost already. she is way to OP
I was messing aroung with hydra/orb it was very powerful in hell even without gear full hydra sorc would proly be tough in PVP
hydras already have 6 heads, you can simply create aoe by putting them in different places to split the damage output. hydras already got a massive damage boost, no need to overdo it
I dont agre with giving them fireball but i think firebolt as sorc skill should have pierce target based on level of it and it should work for hydras also.
Spawning hydras in a circle does not magically make hydras do aoe attacks. Single target is still single target.
You still have points for Frozen Orb or Nova to deal even more dmg while the hydras shoots on them.
Or spam Fireballs … you don´t cast them and watch 
It single target…per firebolt! YOu could easily have like 30+ of them on screen at any one time.
It also scale proportional the less amount of enemies there are, & compeleted borken against single target. which in a way opposite of Typical AOE spells where damage do not tapered off density , but does also increase as density get less.
This make Hydra different, It has its strength & weakness. It make hydra…hydra. Great damage against limited enmies, but decent against density, but taper off at high density.
having Hydra scale better with bosses & less enemy, but no disadvantage as density increase will make it too op.
Hydra is a small
I don’t think we should be striving to solidify the similarities between classes by making them even more alike. Sure, hydras are a bit similar to trap sins, but let’s try to keep their identities separate, not make them more similar. Hydras are in a good place I think. I typically spam a few and then throw out a few fireballs, while I tele around. It’s fast and efficient, yet I don’t have even half the gear I expect to have on ladder. I love being able to snag chests in the cow level while my fire boys do work. It’s a nice change of pace for sorcs.
Honestly,
Honestly, you don’t really need FO, that skill is so weak I rather use act Merc with Mist bow and cold arrows.
The issue is that the way modern players farm, single target attacks are not desirable. You want speed and efficiency when clearing content in D2 speed farming. Sorc can already do this with other skills. The purpose of this buff is to bring Hydras up to par with her other skills. Trap skills have both AOE and Piercing. Hydras do not. This makes it an issue when dealing with bosses like Ubers with lots of ads or fire immune monsters. If Hydras could target prioritize then this skill would be much better to use.
Hydra is definitely better with the changes, but again there are drawbacks to how it plays. You’ll likely only farm tight areas that have few fire immunes (Ancient tunnels, pits for example), as you can focus fire the hydras on smaller packs of enemies. Cows is doable but tough to control as you really don’t have aoe here.
It’s just a different playstyle and won’t ever rival nova, blizz, or lighning sorcs for aoe clearing.
The biggest issue with hydra is that it doesn’t “synergize back” spells like firebolt and fireball, so you have no active component in your build against immunes to your second element.
Max placement
Lighting Sentry: 5
Hydra:6
Projectiles per unit
Lighting Sentry: 10
Hydra: 24
Damage per hit
Light Sentry 1-2574 ( average 1287.5 ) with max synergy at lvl 20
Hydra 1232-1433 ( average 1332.5 ) with mx synergy at lvl 20
With all hydras out, they will hit a single target 18 times with an average total dmg of 23,985 vs lighting sentry hitting 5 times with an average total of 6,662.5. Hydras clearly dominate when it comes to smaller packs of enemies or bosses, while light sentry would take the advantage for larger groups like cows. However, in testing hydra with cows, I’m seeing that the clear speed is quite fast even with crappy gear. Hydra is in a great place right now and I really don’t think it needs more at all.
Hydras only stay active for 10 seconds and traps stay as long as they have charges, and they move with you.
Traps have AOE and Peirce >>>>> 24 single target projectiles.
Same as above AOE + Peirce + mobility >>>> slight damage increase.
I would not use Hydras for Cow farming. There are better options for that. I know it’s a good place to farm for runes. I am simply stating that with all that power, the skill fundamentally needs basic core mechanics that make it a well-rounded skill compared to other similar skills. The skill looks cool and flashy, but after a while you will notice that the competition is doing better than you and you will swap back to not using it. I am trying to avoid that from happening. Is Hydra amazing in certain situations, yep. Can it be improved? Most definitely.
Um…what? What makes you think that traps move with you? They don’t, either through walking or teleporting. They stay where they are placed. Also, if you need more than 10 seconds to kill a pack, you might need gear upgrades lol.
Yup, thanks for reiterating a point I already made. This also means that trap sins suck at bosses and small packs, which they do. The difference is that a hydra sorc still has a very strong fireball for large packs, where a trap sin doesn’t have a great single target skill.
Yup, saying the same thing again I see, as if it proves me wrong or something lol
I’m saying that it’s viable, and probably will be in the top 10 cow builds despite the single target attacks from the hydras. I already stated that trap sins will likely be better at large packs, but if you’re going to insist that people should only use the most efficient builds in every case, then trap sins wouldn’t be played at all. I can clear cows in about 4 min with hydra and really crappy gear, which says a lot for its viability I think, and it’s fun.
The only thing Hydra needs IMO is when it dissapears it could explode or can we see the very first fire nova.
Massive damage boost? The synergies got changed from 3% to 5% and you can now get your Hydras out faster than before. The skill does slightly more damage now but is still way less effective than blizzard/orb or lightning because it has no AOE or pierce effect.
That is an amazing idea, make it like corpse explosion dmg numbers.
I wish they had given Hydras a %chance to cast fireball based on hard points into fireball (maybe 1.5% per point). That would make 20 points into fireball give hydras almost 1/3rd chance(30%) of casting fireball, which would make density clearing go smoother.
If not that, I think they should remove the synergy from fireball and only have firebolt synergize hydra at 8-10% per point. that way Hydra can be fully synergized with less skill points allowing better hybrid builds.
Hydras and Traps are remarkably similar in power, its just that Trapsins traps have access to AOE & Piercing. Not to mention Assassins are built like tanks and have a bootleg teleport skill. Don’t be scared of buffing this skill to make it whole.
Since it’s the last skill it should be stronger than meteor and fireball:
Skill change suggestions :
Add chance to cast meteor / add synergie with meteor increase chances and level
Add chance to cast fireball / add synergie with fireball increase chances and level
Plus the shawmeck suggestion
(they need to have target priority in the following manner: Bosses>Super uniques> champions>Minions>regular monsters>[Do not fire on fire immunes])