I use Orb/Fball its not bad other than you have to aim your fball but hell andy only takes a few hits, My orb dmg isnt that high seeing as I made sorc in classic 300 orb dmg and 1.7kfball rapes andy and meph. Its not all that bad in PvP either but i havent really dueled anyone with a good char yet seeing as its my mf char.

That only takes into account level 20 orb, obviously a higher level orb benefits more from synergies.
I'd be interested in seeing a damage calculation for orb with common gear selections.

Shall I post my damage from my FOhydra sorc?

Sure

And to Veilside, these are my dmg's on my meteorb sorc using full tal set. I got anni/torch, but no sk's/bc/soj's on these:

Orb : 530-555 (-95 res CM)
Fireball: 5 928-6 502
Meteorb: 13 986-14 608

She's lvl 88 btw.

Well, my FOhydra sorc has a few tweaks to the standard build.

She has full tals on with spirit, has an anni + chilling GC in inventory. She also has a 3/3 cold die in the orb. I was amazed at how much the 3% from the facet actually helped. Her stats are:

Slvl 30 Hydra - 1228 - 1406 (1317 average damage)
Slvl 30 FO - 489 - 513 (501 average damage)
Cold mastery Slvl 24 - -138% Cold resistances.

It only takes 2 well placed orbs to take Meph down. IF I "sweetspot" the orb, its almost only 1. I am sure If I tacked on a torch, it would only be 1 FO to take Mephy down.

Sorry i've not been paying all that much attention to D2 lately, got really bored of it with the new ladder.
What levels are both your orbs? Obviously most people have a higher level orb than level 20 so the first psot, while being helpful wasn't as helpful as it could have been.

i think orb is abit overpowered:P

idk if any1 cares but synergies only come from the hard points you put into the skills. the ones u get from items like soj and gcs and torch dont count towards synergy.

thank you captain obvious.

LOL..

i alawys considered orb Above blizzard...

i totally agree with morpheus...when u are elite aimer...and u cast a blizzard right on enemy head...and all shards miss...it pisses me off...there for...FO PWNS.