Zeal/hydra/enchant sorc questions

[:1]Hey guys,

Looking for a new char to make; a sorc using dragon body armor and shield for 24% chance to cast hydra and then using passion to have a fast enough attack (with a faith merc or infinity mer and playing with a paladin friend).

Some questions:

1. Fireball/firebolt synergy and the fire mastery add damage to hydra, do the hydra's that spawn from dragon's CTC also gain these multipliers?

2. Does the spawning of hydra's give a delay to zeal? <- If so do you recommend using bearform and a shael'ed phaseblade?

3. What attacks faster? Bearsorc with phase blade? Sorc with zeal? I really like the idea of zeal, but if I have to rely on a faith merc and can't use infinity it might be alot better to use bear and a 120% ias phase. Opinions on this?

4. Also, is there a way to increase the spawning hydra's from CTC? Maybe + fire skills like magefists?

5. Any other suggestions?

Skills im planning on maxing:

Firebolt (Synergy hydra's)

Fireball (Synergy hydra's)

Enchant

Warmth (Synergy enchant)

Firemastery

1+ point in cold armor?



Cheers,

Svalin|||Just decided to not be lazy and look around in the huge collection of guides. It seems that the max a bear can reach is 5FPA and a zeal sorc 10/7/7/7/7 (+/-8). So bear it is. This still leaves me with questions 1, 4 and 5. Im guessing spawning hydra's doesnt put your normal attack (bearform) on cooldown?

Please advise,

Svalin |||Both the synergies and FM will increase the ctc hydra damage, unfortunately there's no way to increase the level it's casted at. I don't know whether or not it'll cause a delay.

Blocking might be a problem... with 136 dex you'll have some block but with no FBR in bearform it's going to be terribly slow.

I don't have much experience with melee sorcs so I'll just leave this here ^^|||Quote:








Both the synergies and FM will increase the ctc hydra damage, unfortunately there's no way to increase the level it's casted at. I don't know whether or not it'll cause a delay.

Blocking might be a problem... with 136 dex you'll have some block but with no FBR in bearform it's going to be terribly slow.

I don't have much experience with melee sorcs so I'll just leave this here ^^




Was thinking about going without block, full vita. And adding some 20 life SC's or fire/life skillers. Hmm maybe to squishy without leech?

EDIT: Maybe go with a different weapon, here are the options I am considering:

(All phase blades cept gris caddy)

5 frames - White: 95 IAS/75@

8 frames - HoJ: 33IAS/ITD/some ED/Holy fire aura lvl 16/-enemy fire resist

7 frames - Grief: 40 IAS/ITD/Actual physical damage

6 frames - BOTD: 60 IAS/some ED

6 frames - Gris caddy: 4x shael/1x 15/15

Hmmm feels like a toss up between 95% PB, the 95% Gris caddy or the HoJ PB... |||I know you're going max vita, which is why I mentioned PB's dex requirement of 136 which'll get you to about 30% block.|||Quote:








I know you're going max vita, which is why I mentioned PB's dex requirement of 136 which'll get you to about 30% block.




Ah true Thanks for explaining, maybe I should make it in a really low block% shield on purpose? Zeal starts to look really promissing now though... max block (maybe impossible with dragon, and half decent damage from passion)

For discussion sake: In a kite shield with 136 dex you end up with 18% block|||I recently made a enchant bear sorc with a grief and phoenix shield instead of going for the normal dual dream to get a decent amount of physical damage while sacrificing speed. If your concerned about life leach remember that it is based completely on the physical damage you deal so if you use a shael phase blade, no matter how much you hit them your really not going to leech anything back. My build leaves me with no problems in the life and mana department since I use energy shield as well since I have no other use for mana. Another thing you have to think about is that of course in bear form you can't teleport as well so that is the main downside.

In your case though I'm not really sure how far a fully synergized level 15 hydra will go. As hubb said there is no way to increase the level of the hydra that is casted, so while you will be casting a lot of them they may not be doing very much damage. Also the mercs weapon choice could be up for debate, since you dont have any lightning damage, fire immunes are always going to be a problem, ifinity or not, otherwise though extra damage and lower defense is always welcome.

(P.S. using a kite shield, while lowering your chance to block, will probably significantly lower your defense so expect to take a lot more hits)