Let me know if this is the wrong place for this kind of thing..

I'm trying to make a fire sorc - was hoping to do something a little weird and different than Sorcs I've made a hundred times - fireball/hydra maybe? While I know Diablo punishes this kind of thing typically - especially if you can't afford the most optimal gear. I'm already finding out that hydra really steals much needed points from meteor to make FB deal the damage it should. But I'm trying to make her somewhat viable in hell. I'm not poor poor but I'm not phoenix rich ya feel me?

I really don't understand the whole sunder thing well enough to really know - is it possible to get a very low sunder at a decent price (sounds like I have to use LoD Sunder?) and maybe I can scrape by the Vex for flickering flame and maybe a 5/5 for eschuta's and make her hell viable at all?

gear right now is.. rand d torch, anni, eschutas 19f, vmagi, hellwarden's, spirit mon, fcr rings, 3fire ammy, super basic.

I don't at all have a grasp on how much fire resistance monsters have in hell and how much penetration would be needed. And to be honest I don't really understand exactly how the sunders work.

or is this just a worthless endeavor if you don't have the optimal gear needed - infinity, phoenix, flame rift, defender's fire, etc. etc.

any help or opinions on whether this is hopeless would be appreciated

Imo everybody should have at least 1 mf firesorc on their account for the sole purpose of farming TZ andy with it (She dies in 3-5 fireballs on P1 no matter what gear you're wearing unless it's complete garbage).
Anything else is a waste of time trying to farm with a fire sorc. Not worth the investment it takes to make it viable.

Thanks for the response m8. I'll definitely hit up andy during tz atleast in your honor.

for a decent budget fire sorc you can go 3 piece tal with flickering flame. -15 enemy fire res from orb (-20 with rbf), another -15 from flickering flame = good dmg

hydra is a nice skill vs act bosses and heralds even without that many points into it. but you'll quickly realize that spamming fbs will almost always be a better option than to lay down a bunch of hydras

you will definitely need a sunder charm. a low roll lod one is cheap but gets the job done