This depends on where you want to farm, on what player count and what your gear level is.

You are much better off IMO going with a single element + a strong merc and farming wherever your build does best.

For example, let's say you don't have infinity yet and that is what you are farming for.

Full blizz sorc = travincal or chaos or ancient tunnels

Full fire sorc = durance level 3 or stony tomb

Full lightning sorc = arcane sanctuary

If you have low gear and really want a dual element sorc to MF because you'll get bored if you can't go anywhere in the game then IMO orb/nova is the best.

Is orb nova a slow killer or does it do pretty good overall. This has me somewhat intrigued as a setup. I was thinking Hydra-orb or Hydra-Blizz but orb nova sounds sorta fun as well.

It can be very fast in p1 to p3 games if you use some source of -enemy light resist such as full tal's and some light facets (can get 3/5 ones cheaper) or crescent moon runeword and maintain 105% fcr. The benefit of this setup over other dual element sorcs is that you can fully synergize one element (nova) while still being extremely strong on the other (orb).

So I did go the Hydra/Orb route. I will say it clears any farm location p1 and in a group with p3 pretty easily. It is also quite a fun build as well - planting hydras, teleporting around spamming orb. There are random fire/cold immunes that the merc takes down quick as well.
The one real struggle with this build is packs of cold immunes. Orb is the main damage dealer and hydras are single target dealers, so if you get a ultra fast/strong cold immune pack, easier to skip it.

Fireorb is a great hybrid.

this and nothing else. blizz can even cheece cs with ok gear easily

I have perfect MF geared Hydra \ Frozen Orb sorc. I wear: Tal armor, tal belt ,tal amu, shako, magefists, occy, monarch spirit, war travs , Soj and 10%magic FCR ring. On merk fortitude, Andy and infinity. Build has 450%MF without sc and strenth to farm every area in game. It rapes stony tombs, icy cellars, Andariel and Mephisto. Also i farm Arcane sanctuary with no problem, even it is slower, than lightning sorc.
Yes,lightning sorc is more effective with infinity, but frozen orb \ hydra is more more fun. And we are playing for fun, right?))

This post was edited by HerGhost on May 20 2022 12:32am

Agreed, I have made a lite sorc in like 90% of the ladders. The Hybrid is a nice change of tempo. Of course I agree that it is not the most optimal build for speed, but still awesome