Been quite lucky with the progress this ladder season, it is surely much faster starting with sorceress rather than bowa or barb ... Quest bugging the bosses really makes drops much better.

I went with the quest bugged boss run strategy, and due to using 2 of the same builds, it went much faster this time. Static + fireball is very op in normal, and late normal+nightmare, static and hydra is op. When getting to end nm and hell, skilling orb makes it possible to kill fire immunes too. I find these three skills to be superior to all the others, especially since this is hardcore.

Hydra tells you if there are monsters around corners, through doors and at the edge of the screen. In addition, it makes it possible to place 4-5 of them in a bunch and place heavy directed fire damage to enemies charging when you kite them, and let your merc engage while you run back.

Max static plus any +skills is great to use quickly to reduce enemies to 50% hit points. Only problem is lightning resistant or ofc immunes, but casting lower resist make it much more effectful. Enemies with 50% hp dies much faster and it's very quick to use.

Frozen orb is easy to control.


The question here is:

Currently i am doing hell quest bugged diablo runs. I just spent my remaining two reskill quests trying different skills, mainly lightning, which i got to 1-5000 damage, and was a disappointment. Second i tried blizzard + meteor. That is a disappointment also. Both are so random and hard to get to work consistently.

Why are these two skills so popular instead of at least hydra, which is much easier to control? One other significant advantage hydra has, is that you can cast it and it keeps dealing damage while you can run around. Frozen orb is much easier to control, while not having the same range, it deals great damage. Blizzard hits so randomly and seems to be slower.


I just don't get why people downplay hydra, and why static field isn't used or recommended more. Reducing bosses to 50% hp in an instant is a huge advantage as well.

No comment.

??? Lol

There are 0 people that don't use static.

Your question is why people don't recommend a low damage spell that aim at random including aim to FI for the whole duration of the spell instead of a high damage fast cast rate aoe spell like fireball?

Because they try to do 2-3 minute chaos not 15 minute chaos.

This post was edited by Titus1986 on Jan 9 2022 03:09am

Is there a person who dont use static field at PvM Sorc ?

I made a hydra sorcs pre-D2:R. Damage is laughable compared to fireball and meteor, which is why noone uses it. Maybe this will change with the patch, but as of now, there are just much better options. If you are using the skill just for scouting mobs around the corner, then I guess 1 point would do. Don’t use it as your main skill.

Most people use static field for bosses. The reason you might came to the conclusion that people don’t use them is because most players still playing today have already found gg gear and dealing gg damage. If you are going to 1-2 shot mobs anyway, there’s no need for static. They are more useful early in the season or if you are running a hybrid sorc (lower damage ceiling but greater versatility).

This post was edited by qbqbqbbqb on Jan 9 2022 08:04am

You should set a parameter for your builds to make them comparable in a way. For example, how long does it take to reach lvl 75 in hell untwinked in hours played?

Well that's good. And i do get the point if people do big damage, thinking more like in the beginning.

Hmm, did some skill point testing, fireball does about 7000 average damage with 25 skill points in fire ball, bolt, meteor and mastery. Hydra does 1400 each bolt with the same setup.

I do get that fire ball does more damage, but the point here was hardcore, and low to mid-gear, not high-end. Hydra is much safer to use.

And although it may take some time to get going, having 15 hydra heads up firing about 10 bolts every second, that's 14 000 fire damage each second. My hydras do about 600 average fire damage, and i find that diablo dies very quickly to them (after static) especially when i use lower resist.

One other point is that hydras can be cast next to enemies, meaning 99% of their bolts will hit the target. You stand from edge screen and cast fire balls, 40% of them will miss. Because you can't stand too close to monsters in hell hardcore, it's gonna get you killed sooner or later.

That's good! I didn't know people did - i can understand if people do big damage, would make it redundant.




Read my post above this. Damage is not laughable if used correctly. I tried using meteor, it's hard to aim and use correctly, especially when you have a sub-par geared merc that dies. Hydra keeps firing while you run around.

I do get the point about static when you do big damage from main skills though.




Depends on how you play too though, some people rush and don't care if they die, i do.. so i probably play 30% slower than 95% of most others.

I rushed two characters this season, clearing through an act with one, rejoining and running through with the other, so i could run quest bugged boss runs. This in turn speeds up the runs indirectly, because you find better gear from the bosses... Let's say i've spent between 40 and 50 hours from the reset a month ago to where i am now, 2 x mid-geared (for one character, i swap the gear when clearing acts) level 77 sorceress running quest bugged diablo runs in hell.

This post was edited by Taurean on Jan 14 2022 05:32pm

Interesting strategy, to give you an idea, I usually start as a fire sorc then at lvl 30 got full frozen orb till mid nightmare, gear up to lvl 75 then go to akara and make the full respec to blizzard. The hardest parts are the first 30 lvls and going through act 3. You can die there easily as a sorc. I can go from lvl 30 to 75 within 6-8 hours then I am in hell doing just enough to get to mephisto. From then on it's autopilot to get my merc a respectable gear. Long story short, I'd need around 22 hours for your lvl 77 spec without quest bugging anything. 50 hours are more than twice that long.