Secondary hydra (D2R)

[Boro]

I don't think I've ever done a primary blizzard sorcie before, in large part because there are no secondary damage options in the other trees as good as Frozen Orb: Nova is mana-hungry and wants all the mastery points you can get, Fireball&co want their synergies + Mastery, and Firewall wants Blaze along for the ride, the latter working poorly with permanent mercenaries in the mix now. Lightning/CL have the same problems as Fireball, Thunder Storm is a joke, and Enchant... don't. I speak from experience.

But what about Hydra? It has two synergies, but they are the weakest aside from Frozen Orb's at 3% per point. It's a bad skill in LoD. Period. Blizzard, in their infinite wisdom, decided to effectively limit their numbers to 6 in the worst way possible: global cooldown timers, so they took forever to ramp up to their maximum number. At the same time, they gave the assassin class hydras, limited to 5, without any cooldowns, that shoot charged bolt, lightning, or even corpse explosion! And it never occurred to them to do the same (hard limit, no cooldown) for the Sorceress, until resurrected version 2.4.

So now we have a bona-fide trapsin option, shooting firebolts in triplets, that still take time to ramp up (as can be seen in the journey of Sullla's Lernie, who died the same place as T-Hawk's Starsurge).

My character was twinked. Softcore. Her run wasn't intended to be "one for the ages", or to even mean anything. It was to give me a blizzard sorceress who can farm Mephisto and Andariel for fat loot, and speed through p7 Lower Kurast without immunes getting in the way. The twinks were a sub-par spirit sword (still better than almost anything that rolls on orbs  ), Lore, and Glacial amulet of the Apprentice. That blue was a thing of beauty. Oh and a Skin of the Vipermagi with an Um rune. There was also a Harlequin Crest with a perfect topaz in it, because I've got my itching for loot to be excited over before inevitably tossing them into some refuse pile.

As for the run, I opted for a firebolt start to respec out of. Saves me from doing excessive chugging, and I'm already a fan of the leaf staff. Could have probably used Charged Bolt, then go static/nova instead, but I at least didn't have to chug, and Firebolt scaled better into higher player counts, even if weaker than Cinderella's, due to the need to pump pre-requirements. Blizzard took the spotlight as soon as it came online, especially once bolstered by Spirit+insight's mana regen. The respec happened at level 30, and although I had hydra, it didn't see much use until late nightmare, where my investment was starting to pay off against the cold immunes showing up in the ice caves, where it's long range let me scout and kill enemies from a safe distance.

Of course the real fun starts in hell, but I have to leave that for later.

[T-hawk]

I thought Hydra was pretty solid in 1.14 for the character I played with it. The damage rate is pretty comparable to Fireball, and the long range and auto targeting are advantages too. The one big problem is packs with mixed immunities where it will keep hitting the fire immunes instead of what it can kill, but it makes the skill interesting to have that sort of downside.

What's wrong with Enchant? I just finished my enchanter, and she was diesel as hell. Use Kuko Shakaku if you want to avoid melee. Enchant does need the synergy + mastery package like everything else, though you might be able to get by at half strength with limited synergy.

[KingOfPain]

Enchant and Hydras are useless? I mean, sure, if you're comparing them to a fully twinked, one-trick-pony Blizzard Sorc that can solo-8 Lister & Co in 3-4 seconds.....

[Boro]

It's more that the cooldown system is plain less fun (and in some ways less flexible) than the hard-limited traps the assassin uses (which are essentially hydras) that were introduced in the same expansion.

Anyways, I was exploring the skill as a secondary ability with limited skill points to spare, 33 in total, due to another character that I had parked in act 2 hell, who had exactly this many points to spare for a secondary enchant, an unwillingness to use pre-buffs due to long play sessions, and the "fun" drawback of less visual clarity in D2R. You know the bright red sword/staff/weapon you have when enchanted? Not a thing. You only notice you are not dealing damage with the weapon anymore once it runs out. And the damage itself... is almost rogue revival worthy.

It was also a test for the duo run with Gario to see how hydras will perform with just mastery for support.

Long story short, they did great. They performed especially well in the caves, as an "out of line of sight" way of damaging boss packs, and worked well in tandem with freezing from ice blast and 1 point glacial spike. In act 2 they saw use notably in the Claw Viper Temple, although the only reason I didn't suffer a full jailbreak from fangskin was that I proactively swept the altar area for any enemies, and finding it clear, teleported up because it's a safe spot the snakes can't path to. It may be cheap, but it works. Otherwise I'd have S&E'd and retried, as spawns are a little different each run.

Hell Act V wasn't that different from nightmare act V (Hydras great in the caves, and also out in the open from long range), but this time the cold mages in Baal's waves were also cold immune so they were needed. They were also the main part of my boss-killing strategy as I couldn't reliably keep them sitting in my blizzards. So I popped hydras and kited. Andariel, Duriel, and Diablo went down like that. Mephisto enjoyed the moat (although here I noticed my act II merc's suicidal tendencies to rush into Meph's spells), while with Baal I played hide and seek, hitting a town portal every time a clone was summoned, as a quick trip to malah tends to unsummon them.

[T-hawk]

Anyways, I was exploring the skill as a secondary ability with limited skill points to spare, 33 in total, due to another character that I had parked in act 2 hell, who had exactly this many points to spare for a secondary enchant, an unwillingness to use pre-buffs due to long play sessions, and the "fun" drawback of less visual clarity in D2R. You know the bright red sword/staff/weapon you have when enchanted? Not a thing. You only notice you are not dealing damage with the weapon anymore once it runs out. And the damage itself... is almost rogue revival worthy.

33 points for Enchant isn't enough. It needs max mastery, because of how it works quadratically in applying twice.

If you want to do Enchant on limited skill points, the way is to skip Enchant itself entirely and use level-23 charges of it from a Demon Limb item. Max fire mastery and then whatever synergy you can put in.

Absent that plan, yes Hydra is better for a secondary with limited points to spare, since its synergy is weaker and mastery is less critical.

[KingOfPain]

Hydra, while not the most powerful Sorceress spell, offers several tactical advantages. It's strong enough to pair with another elemental skill and can significantly boost your overall damage by combining multiple attacks simultaneously. It's always the first character I build each new season - a Hydra plus Blizzard or Frozen Orb Sorceress. McTyraelGal (Material Girl), she is my go-to MFer. 
She is the girl who is Beyond Lite and Fire Immune


I have no idea what criteria you guys are using to judge Enchant. HotBowBabe is probably the most fun and versatile build, not to mention an absolute force multiplier in group play. IIRC, her Enchant is only at slvl 32 with a duration of 700+ seconds. It is also a very simple Skill Bar - mainly just Walk/Attack on the LMB and Teleport on the RMB; that is it for melee or bow mode. With her full setup, she practically never use Static Field, Fire Ball, or Hydra -those were leftover skills from leveling. I very rarely respec; any mistake or mis-click I made is part of that character's journey.

In Bow Mode



In Melee Mode





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