This skill is a prerequisite for Meteor. Firewall is the most damaging magical skill in the game, and help from Fire Mastery can make it even stronger. Does that translate into making it the best skill? Yes and no.
Firewall has two critical weaknesses: limited area of effect and severe strain on your CPU/Video. The first problem is not always a problem. In some situations, firewall's limited area of effect doesn't matter, and in these situations the skill dominates. I'll come back to that later. The other problem is framerate, and this is indeed a serious issue. Casting a few slvl one firewalls is not a problem. But with added skill points, the width of the wall increases, adding more sprites to the display, and also the duration of the flames increase, just as with Blaze. But unlike Blaze, you can multi-cast firewall. You can stack many firewalls on top of one another, or spread them around the screen, and it takes only moments to cast each one. When the length of each firewall extends for dozens of yards, each casting is adding that many more sprites to the display. With Blaze, there is a limit to how many sprites can be added per second, and the framerate problems have to do with how long the flames burn and how many total you can end up with at one time. But that problem is vastly multiplied with firewall. You can literally stack so many high level firewalls on your screen that even a brand new state of the art PC with the best available video, sound, RAM, and hard drive can't keep up, and it gets much much worse for anyone with low RAM, or running D3D or software rendering instead of Glide. With firewall, most of the problem actually lies in the spell effects itself, but not all: some comes from the blood spatters, which pile up and bog down the frame times. Remember that you can erase blood spatters by moving them off your screen, then returning. This can help to some degree.
If soloing, in single or multiplayer, you can get away with pushing the limits more. In coop situations, you must restrict how many firewalls you cast at once. How many you can get away with depends on how high you've pumped the skill, and the hardware of you and your coop partners. There are going to be some players who can't or won't want to play with you if firewall is your main attack, particularly if you show no restraint in its use. You will just have to accept that.
Firewall is one of the most situationally dependent skills the sorceress has available. In some situations, nothing can compare to it. Nothing. In others, it's so inefficient as to make you want to cry.
There are two philosophies for Firewall use: situational and all-purpose.
If used as a situational skill, this generally means you keep the skill at a modest level (both for framerate purposes, and because a low level of the skill is all you will actually need for situational applications). Exactly how much firewall you want for situational use, will depend on your style and whether or not you are playing any coop. Taking the skill up to about slvl 5-7 is fairly well safe for fps purposes, and you won't have to be stingy: you can stack it at certain times or lay down a field of flames. You might want to take it higher, though, for longer duration, and also for wider lines. The skill functions by stretching out a thin line of flames that is perpendicular to your character at the time of the casting. One useful aspect of this is that you can reach around corners with firewalls, to hit things out of your line of sight, and the higher your skill, the longer your reach. Only practice can tell you how much will be right for you.
Situations where firewall dominates include stationary turrets (garg traps, fire and lightning towers), shamen types, and most ranged attackers. For something to attack you at range, it must stop and go through an attack animation, launching its missile or casting its spell. During that stationary time, if it happens to be standing in one or more massively damaging firewalls, its life expectancy can be measured in moments, unless it is either very strong or highly resistant, or both. Terrain can also be used to good effect with firewall, as any terrain features that allow you to cast firewalls on targets that can't reach you and are either trapped or fairly well stationary, can mean some very quick kills. Some such situations will naturally present themselves, such as rivers and platforms. Unfortunately, many such situations that would seem ideal, do not allow you to target as needed -- for example, across most ravines in Act 4. This takes a little of the potential out of Firewall, and could perhaps be viewed as a bug, but so it goes. You must have a direct playfield line of sight to your target area, with no intervening walls, columns, closed doors, buildings, etc, in order to be able to cast.
Stationary targets make the best firewall fodder. However, shamen types, maggots, oblivion knights, archers, don't always sit still. What should you do? Open up a new firewall under them again and again until they finally die? Sometimes you may have to, but generally you won't if you use the CRISSCROSS attack. The Crisscross is a maneuver where you cast one firewall directly on the target, then circle around a short way and cast another firewall, at a new angle. This presumes that you want to cast more than one firewall at all, which won't always be the case. You can usually kill weak targets like maggots, flayer blowdarts, most skeleton archers with a single firewall. But shamen and some other targets often take more. A crisscross is sort of like a crossfire. If the target fails to move, it's just as effective as a straight stack, because the flames ARE still stacked at the intersection, where the target is standing when you attack. However, if the target picks up and moves, then chances are they will move OUT of the flames if you stacked them. But... if you crisscrossed them, then they will most likely still be under attack by one of the firewalls. A double crisscross can be made into a triple, with three firewalls at different angles. At that point you've almost made a pinwheel of fire on top of the target, with full coverage. 4x crisscross provides definite full coverage, and chances are you won't need or want to stack more than four firewalls on anything besides a serious boss. And what's more, the monster AI -appears- to behave differently when it is under direct attack. In my experience, it seems that crisscrossing not only helps clean up monsters that move around, but also seems to make them move around less often. Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV).
The exception to the Crisscross tactic for ranged attackers is when the target is backed up against a wall or other terrain feature that cuts off half the movement options. In this case, position your sorcie perpendicular to the obstacle, if possible, and stack firewalls parallel to it. Chances are the target will move along the wall instead of moving toward you, and this keeps them in the flames and they will die very quickly.
Word of warning: the Quill Rat types and the skeleton mages have annoying movement patterns. They don't move far, but they move OFTEN, and often enough to force you to recast firewall several times to clean up a weak opponent. More direct means, such as Fireball, Meteor, Glacial Spike or Chain Lightning are more effective against these pests. Firewall will certainly work, but they'll make you waste mana.
Firewall is NOT strong or efficient against melee opponents that charge right at you. That doesn't mean you can't make it work -- far from it -- but other skills will get the job done quicker and easier. UNLESS... you have other players to "tank" for you. If you are cooping with melee-based allies, or with necros/amazons who use expendable minions, these forces can serve to draw the attention of enemy targets and "hold them still for you". In this situation, you can make firewall successfully apply to ANY opponent; however, this requires cooperation from others and a multiplayer situation. You can TRY to do that, solo, with hired mercs, but you will find that an exercise in frustration, not a viable tactic.
Firewall works wonders against Mephisto and Diablo, and against any Council you can get stuck on some terrain feature, but is much tougher to employ against Andariel, Duriel and Hephasto.
Using firewall as an all-purpose skill in a solo situation (or a multiplayer situation with no "tanks") is one of the most serious tactical challenges you can undertake. There are only three options:
Intense Tactical Use of Terrain Features
Combine With Other Skills
Bathe The Screen
Using the terrain involves either finding impediments or working with corners. The idea is to force opponents to stand in or walk along your firewalls. You will have to pick your battlegrounds carefully and force opponents to fight you on your own terms whenever possible. Teleport skill can assist greatly with this and open up more options and more safety, but is not strictly required. However, without teleport, you will have to do more corner work because some impediments are like Sorcie Roach Motels: you can check in, but you won't check out. Getting yourself trapped is a good way to die for a Hot Babe. In dire situations against nasty bosses, you might have to lure them into a trap, TP out of there and return via waypoint, in lieu of teleport. The corner method comes down to laying firewalls at corners then leading chasers around the corner, and thus through the firewall. Clearly, I'm talking 270 degree corners, not 90 degree corners. You can find corners anywhere, albeit some are easier to work with than others. But even in wide open spaces there are huts, ravines, oases, statues, rocks, rivers... always something to work with. Good luck.
Combining with other skills would technically include Teleport and Telekinesis, but mainly here I'm referring to Static Field, cold tree skills, Blaze, Thunderstorm, etc. With enough help, you move out of the range of all-purpose and back into situational use of firewall, but there is a middle ground where firewall is still essential to virtually every kill but you are combining it with other skills.
Bathing the Screen is anything where you cast a bunch of firewalls in open area and then try and run monsters through them with various kinds of maneuvers. Firewalls can be stacked or spread out, cast parallel or crisscrossed. No matter how you do it, it's going to be inefficient and wasteful. Even so, there are some tactics you can try and use, and most of them are variations on Blaze tactics I outlined when discussing that skill. The down side to Bathing the Screen in Flames is twofold: extreme mana wastefulness and extreme framerate slaughter. You're going to kill more fps than opponents with this tactic. Even in single player you are going to have incredibly choppy (single digit) frame rates, and you really DON'T have a multiplayer option with this, except in very strict moderation, as allies will desert you if your "firewall lag" is getting them killed. Remember, the higher level your firewall skill, the worse it lags frame times PER USE. At maximum level you'll lag badly even with just a few firewalls. It's really too bad, because this skill would be so much more fun (and popular) if it wasn't broken by TOO MUCH EYE CANDY. So it goes.
If Firewall happens to be a prereq for your Meteor, it's still quite useful at slvl 1 to help get you through to clvl 24 -- certainly better than slvl 1 fireball, for that purpose. You may find, though, that Firewall and Meteor apply so much to the same situations that it would be redundant to add to both. Choose one of them and go with it, then choose other skills that shine brighter in the situations where firewall and meteor come up short, and your sorcie will be more well-rounded.
Firewall presents quite the mixed bag, but in some situations it is so strong, you HAVE to take it seriously. The low number of prereqs makes it attractive to a multi-tree character, and the high returns for situational use with only modest skill point investment only adds to its attractiveness in that regard.
METEOR
Meteor is one of the Fire Tree's two highest attack skills. It requires a whopping five prerequisites to obtain, unless via staff, but is one of the few skills in the game that offers a strong initial hit followed up by a lingering area of effect.
Meteor is a much more balanced skill than Firewall, in that it isn't as strong at certain points, but it doesn't have Firewall's glaring weaknesses with framerate problems and extreme difficulty with mobile opponents. I recommend that when using meteor, that you think of it as a single attack, relying only on the initial hit for damage in most cases. The afterflames can get to be very useful at higher levels, but generally only against large or slow opponents.
Meteor can apply as much as 500 damage or more to a rather large area. This is a whole lot of hurt in a very short time. Against larger mobs, it is also more mana efficient than you might think. This massive damage potential, applied to multiple targets, makes this simply the most powerful skill in the tree, and one of the mightiest skills in the entire game. Using meteor vs firewall, blaze or hydra will quickly show you the value of the principle that the best defense is a strong offense. If you are going up against foes that you can kill outright with one or two meteors, there isn't a whole lot you are going to fear. This skill is so strong, you can solo-8 with little trouble at all, except against fire resistant opponents.
The true power of Meteor lies in the initial hit. The damage done by the afterflames is just a bonus -- don't count on the lingering flames in a life or death situation if you don't want to end up dead. They are best used for conserving mana against slow or resistant targets, or for stacking in dire situations.
Meteor's area of effect is quite nearly as large as Blizzard's, which is good. You can smash large mobs, if they are somewhat tightly packed, with each Meteor hitting most if not all the mob simultaneously, and the flames licking up the wounded. Meteor does not work like the rest of the direct damage skills, though. Unlike firebolt and fireball and even inferno, meteors do not originate from your character and fly until they collide with a target or terrain feature. Instead, they fall from the sky and always hit the targeted area. Nothing can stop or derail a meteor once it's been cast. But... the falling from the sky is just eye candy, strictly visuals. In real terms, you cast the spell then there is a multisecond delay before it takes affect, and then you get an instant high-damage fire hit on a four yard square area, and then some seemingly-random patches of flame in that area that burn briefly, adding further damage. Those incidental flames burn out almost instantly at low skill levels, but last a meaningful duration at higher levels. The up side to meteor's targeting is that you can hit anywhere in line of sight without having to kill intervening monsters first. You can target shamen types in the back lines right away -- something you can't do with Fireball. The down side is that targeting is more difficult, and the delay before the meteors hit means that it's a spell that works better at longer ranges than shorter ones. Fireball you can point and click even at speedy targets charging you, and hit them. Meteor requires a lot more risk and work to hit really quick enemies.
Meteor will shine just about everywhere that firewall will. Against stationary targets, firewall is stronger, but also harder on the framerates. Meteor can do the same job, and can do it for about the same mana cost, to be honest, but will take a little more time and a few more castings to get it done. However, in situations where Firewall grows costly and inefficient, such as when dealing with skeleton mages and quill rat types, Meteor is as strong as ever. It's larger area of effect allows for more room for error, as well as targets that move around a little bit. Meteor is more effective than Firewall when it comes to dealing with aggressive melee opponents, but it's not as safe as Blaze can be in that department. But where Blaze and Firewall are both extremely strong in certain situations, they are just as weak in others; yet Meteor can get you through any situation, and that is its greatest strength: it has no glaring weaknesses, no foes against which it simply will not work.
Also, if you get into a real jam, Meteor is the best skill in the fire tree for quickly doing massive damage to a mob that has you trapped or surrounded. Firewall's area of effect is just too small, Blaze can't be targeted at anything, and none of the other skills can do as much damage per second as Meteor. You will have to have enough skill points in your Meteor to compete with the area you're in, though. Trying to rescue yourself from a tight spot in Nightmare Act 4 with slvl 1 Meteor is NOT going to cut it. :)
For immobile targets, rangers attackers, and slow-moving targets, Meteor tactics are straightforward. You may have to lead your aim a little, but that should be no problem. For speedier foes, you can use all the same tricks that will work with firewall, in terms of using terrain, but you can also time your shots and make it work fairly easily in the wide open. You aim ahead of your sorcie, then walk through and past the target area while the rocks fall from the sky to hit the creatures following you. How much you need to lead depends on the speed of the chasers. You can also do a sort of scattershot effect, where you spread your shots out, knowing that some will miss but some WILL hit, and at higher skill levels, when the afterflames actually last long enough to matter, you can spread a rather wide area of flames across the map. This also works against restless foes you have trapped on some terrain feature. You might spread the shots out a little to make sure you don't risk missing with them all.
Sometimes it works best to target meteors to left AND right of a restless target or small group of targets, instead of directly on them. If you cast a single meteor, the target might randomly evade. You could try again and still miss, and over and over. If instead you cover all the places the target might go, you are sure to get a hit. This principle of widening the area of effect can be expounded upon in a variety of situations, to get faster or more certain kills at the expense of some extra mana. Only experience can lead you to decide how much of this style of Meteor use will suit you.
Meteors can serve as a defensive shield against swarming, weak enemies. Just cast one on yourself, and maybe another right in front of you, to smash whole swarms of maggots, crows, flesh beasts, fallen ones, or flayers, none of which have any fire resistance.
In some situations, you can fire meteors at the edge of the screen then advance while they drop. If you time it well, and actual enemies were there, they will see you and walk right into the meteor shots. This works best on creatures with low health, like cats and vultures and insect swarms, but can be applied in a wide array of situations, with varying success. The down side to this is that you must do it blind, because by the time you know something is there, it's too late for this tactic -- and so it sometimes means pulling the trigger on empty space and wasting some mana. Whether or not you will need to resort to moves like this, depends somewhat on your other skill choices and the rest of your character build.
As with Blizzard, Meteor's afterflames work better against larger targets. An enemy can take damage from more than one patch of flame, and the larger they are, the more damage they will be taking there. This makes Meteor grandly effective against Mephisto and Diablo, and great against Duriel if his attention is occupied by other players.
In multiplayer situations, Meteor's delay can be a detriment if your coop partners are killing things quickly. Most targets will be dead by the time the meteors land. In that situation, you either have to anticipate more or head off on your own to one degree or another. However, if kills are coming more slowly, then Meteor is easier to use and will make a bigger difference. Necros in particular are fond of Meteor, since it leaves them corpses to work with and helps out their minions enormously. As with Firewall, Meteor's effectiveness in coop situations is magnified if there are players or minions tanking for you.
Meteor also appears to have its effects even if you depart the area after casting it but before the rocks land. You can see this easiest in the Chaos Sanctuary, where you empty your mana ball on the site the mob will appear, and then immediately hit the Seal as the rocks are landing and still falling, then duck out a waiting TP and return via waypoint or some other player's TP. Even though the mob hadn't appeared when you left, you will find many of them damaged or even dead. This principle can also work at stairs or in any situation where you find yourself trapped: cast, then make your exit. When you return, you still get credit for the spells you cast there, although I do not know if you get any experience for absentee kills.
One of the precision moves I did not learn until recently, playing with Astra in Hell difficulty, is what I'll call the Maypole. You drop rocks near your own position, then walk or run a small loop around the area, tempting chasers or just keeping them close. This rounds them up VERY nicely for you, and if you dropped enough rocks, everything will be dead and you will have saved a lot of footwork at virtually no risk. The safety of doing this depends on low lag, though. Don't try this move if you are badly blurred.
Tempting Fate also works well for Meteors. Fetishes in particular... even undead ones. Tempt them, then drop rocks. They will stand there long enough to get hit. Tempting has many other applications, allowing you to control the position of enemies while you are waiting for rocks to hit. In this regard, Meteor can be more tactically satisfying then either Hydra or Blaze, as you take aggressive control of the battlefield instead of timidly or passively killing. The power of meteor, of being to drop X number of rocks and KNOW that everything around you is going to die when they hit, allows for a kind of precision and degree of calm just not possible with the damage over time skills, even hydra. This skill is a must-play for true sorceress fans, and represents the pinnacle of close quarter combat for the sorceress. There is nothing quite like it. You must play it to understand.
HYDRA
Hydra is the other elite Fire Tree skill. It requires four prerequisites, but one of those is Warmth, so in a sense that means only three prereqs. Hydra is not available until clvl 30, so that pretty much means it's a skill for Nightmare and beyond, not for Normal. There are three potential reasons to invest in Hydra: as a scout/sentinel skill, as a situational attack skill, and as an all-purpose skill.
As a scout, only slvl 1 is needed. One thing to keep in mind is that it takes a hydra about a second, maybe a wee bit more, to orient itself and locate a target. Hydras will shoot at anything within their range, regardless of intervening walls, so that helps with the scouting role. As a sentinel, particularly indoors in the dark, to warn you of approaching dangers from any angle, hydra can be invaluable. It's also useful for tracking (and killing) Gloams and Burning Souls. Also keep in mind that hydras will shoot only at the target that is closest to them, not closest to you. Don't grow overconfident in their ability to forewarn you: they can help, but nothing can save you from your own hubris if you get too cocky.
As a situational skill, Hydra is the most impressive skill the sorceress has available -- but only if you use it wisely, meaning from a distance, letting it fight for you while you steer clear of harm's way -- and only if you place staying alive as a higher priority than the rate of your experience gain. SF + Orb + ridiculous mana + maxed fast cast can clear areas far more quickly, but you're going to die in the process fairly often. Hydra is the Stay-Alive uberskill, and you can make it work wonders for you regardless of your equipment.
The first situation to look for is capitalizing on the terrain. If you can put some sort of terrain feature between yourself and the target(s) that completely prevents them from reaching you while your pets are wailing on them, you're in a winning situation. So long as you can't be reached, you remain safe, and time is on your side. Cast as many hydras as you need, and even wait for your mana to recharge by itself, rather than running back to town, so as to take advantage of the situation. Some examples of this include casting hydras through a doorway into an enemy-occupied room or corridor, then moving to anywhere that makes it tough if not impossible for your foes to move through the door. You might even close the door in a few situations. In fact, you can cast Hydras ON a closed door and some of the heads will appear on the other side and be able to attack any targets there. Some might consider this an exploitation, but you can do it, and it has its uses. If you overuse it, though, you will slow down your pace. There are numerous situations where it could be used but shouldn't be because it will only waste time. You can also do this with some walls, even. You'll have to experiment to find all the ways you can take advantage of this feature. Another example of terrain is the Arcane Sanctuary or the end of the River of Flame, where you can cast hydras on other islands then retreat to a safe distance and let them work their magic. Combining Hydra with Teleport can allow you to lead targets into a trap, then to escape and leave them stuck somewhere with your pets.
The second situation for hydra use is against ranged attackers. Hydra is great for ALL ranged attackers because they will pause to shoot at you, and because you can summon your pets to attack, then retreat and generally not need to worry about the targets chasing you and moving out of range of the hydrashot. This also gives you a way to minimize your exposure to those ranged attacks in a way NO other skill available to a sorceress can dream of matching. You need not even expose yourself at all in many cases, because you can summon hydras to shoot at targets around corners or even off-screen. The range of your hydras is quite nearly as long as your own range in casting them. If you raise a hydra at screen edge, it can see almost a whole extra screen away and "warn" you there is a target there by firing at it. This may sound like scouting, but it goes beyond that. You can raise pets at the edge of the screen and eliminate ranged attackers who may die without you ever seeing them. This is not something you must do, but it is something you CAN do. Even if you do expose yourself, you can raise hydras then retreat. Or stay in range but perform Happy Feet (meaning you dodge to hold the target's attention while the hydras attack).
The third situation for hydra use comes against teleporting opponents. These are limited to teleporting bosses and Zakarum Priests in Kurast, but you'll encounter enough teleporters to make it worth your while to realize that Hydra is an awesome skill against them. Your pets will instantly retarget teleporting enemies, so long as they remain within range. You may need to spread your hydras around more than usual to make this work, but you don't even need to worry about targeting beyond that. Also included in this situation is the invisible or cloaked opponent: Burning Souls and Gloams. You can see these targets moving around by the glow they make, but only if the rest of the screen is quiet. In a firefight, they are hard to track. They can be tough and annoying other times, too, such as having a glare on your screen in the late afternoon. Hydras will spot and quickly eliminate these pests.
The fourth situation involves LEBs (Lightning Enchanted bosses). These foes spew sparks on every hit, and with fire skills, that is always going to mean nonstop sparks. Whether it's Inferno, Blaze, Firewall, Meteor, Fireball, or Hydra... fire means lots of little hits on the target, and each hit will cause the sparks to fly. The difference between Hydra and the others is your exposure. Whether you can use terrain to trap the target or impose a barrier between you, or can cast against a ranged LEB and retreat, Hydra is the safest skill you can use on a LEB. If the LEB is particularly fast and aggressive, you may have to rely on Happy Feet to stay ahead of them, and in this case Blaze would likely be your best bet, but Hydra can still be effective. Some use of chilling skills, such as Frost Nova or Blizzard, may also assist.
Fifthly, Hydra can serve as artillery support to take down targets more quickly. Use it to supplement your other skill usage as well as serve as sentinel or scout. Hydra works in multiplayer in this capacity, since when cooping, your allies will be doing damage and your hydras will always be supporting them, and they will often be tanking for your hydras, meaning fewer missed shots.
Sixthly, Hydras are king against the Fire Sorcie's most-hated opponent: the leaper. Leapers are not only dangerous and annoying, but in Acts 3 and 4 they are also HIGHLY fire resistant. Hands down the best fire skill against them is Hydra. Every hydrashot that hits will stun a leaper and knock it back. A few hydras can keep a whole army of leapers at bay, and your pets will stunlock leapers against walls or any other terrain feature the beasties get pushed up against, rendering them helpless. Hydra plus Firewall/Meteor can quickly and safely eliminate these dire threats even in Hell Act 4 multiplayer, without help from any other skills. Hydra alone can get it done, too, though that will take a little longer. Use of Blizzard can assist, as can some Blaze. Hot Babes who do not opt for Hydra as a primary skill should still invest at least one point here not only for the scouting but also to help out with the leapers. Other sorcie skills adept at handling leapers include Blizzard and Nova, and to a lesser degree, Frost Nova, all of which will keep the leapers at bay.
Finally, hydra is indicated against slow opponents. Cast, retreat, wait. The targets will die. Against a hard-hitting but slow opponent, such as Griswold, this can be an ideal tactic.
All-Purpose use of Hydra means employing it even against opponents that would be more easily or more safely killed with other skills. If you can trap targets or use terrain to block them off, that's a situation you can capitalize on, and no reason not to do so if it presents itself. However, if the situation goes bad, or if you are using hydra against ranged attackers but other skills against melee attackers, you aren't relying SOLELY on Hydra to get the job done. However, if you are going to rely on Hydra for everything, that changes the equation, increasing both your risk and the amount of tactical maneuvering of all sorts that you will have to perform. Against melee targets, you really have only two Hydra options: find a way to make a trap, or use Happy feet to maintain distance (run, run, run, and run). With patience, you can always lead targets back to a trap zone you've found, and use the same trap over and over, even if means luring targets from Travincal to Upper Kurast or from Chaos Sanctuary back to the River. As long as you've secured at least one place to trap opponents, you can avoid heavy exposure to danger. However, in some situations, most particularly when you are entering a new area and as yet have established no foothold, this just isn't possible, and your ONLY option then is to raise Hydras in bunches and run around trying to keep from getting trapped, to stay ahead of the chasers but keep them in range of your pets. Sometimes this can be a tall order, but you CAN do it with enough luck, determination, mousework and tactical planning.
So this covers when and how to use Hydra, for all situations. The skill works better in some places than others. Backing it up with other skills is the most effective means of using Hydra. Some of the best skills for dealing with the situations where Hydra is less effective include Blaze, Glacial Spike, Blizzard, Teleport and Static Field. Frost Nova, Frozen Orb, Telekinesis, Cold Armors, and Thunderstorm can assist.
The final issue with Hydra is the decision of when to stack them and when to spread them out. Stacking gives you the advantage of most if not all of the hydra heads targeting the same opponent most of the time. This is to your advantage when it is important to your strategy to kill a particular opponent first, or to start thinning the crowd as soon as possible to reduce your risks as soon as possible. The advantages of spreading your hydras a bit include increasing their total range, having them triangulate their shots against moving targets (fewer missed shots), extending their overall range considerably at the cost of concentrated strength, and giving you a wider field of play to work within as well as greater chance of gaining some additional benefit against newly-arriving or unaccounted-for targets, both in terms of warning you to new arrivals and dealing them some damage.
When you stack hydras, you press your right mouse button and hold it down, counting out the number of times you hear the casting sound. Stop when you have all you wanted, or if threats force you to move to avoid taking damage. You can, of course, cast them one at a time, with a separate click for each, but this takes longer. Faster Cast items are particularly useful for Hydra tactics because the thing to do is raise your pets in larger rather than smaller numbers. When you need them, you need them NOW. Hydra is an awesome skill, but its power comes over time, not all at once, and if power is needed because the target is tough or the mob is large, you may well empty your entire mana ball as quickly as you can, then move to Happy Feet or switch to another skill (again, Blaze is awesome here because it needs so little mana and works so well against the things that give Hydra the hardest time). To lay down a spread of hydras, you do the same thing: click and hold the button, moving the cursor as you go. The hydras will be summoned at your casting rate, which is increased with fast-cast items. You can't afford to be panicking, spreading all your pets a mile apart. Tactical efficiency varies by situation, but generally your hydra spread should leave your pets either overlapping by a bit or just about touching nose to nose. This is not the same as using multiple groups of hydras to attack multiple targets. That, too, is a form of spreading out, but has more to do with how many hydras you are using, and how much Warmth you have. Hydra is a mana-hungry skill. Each casting can deal a lot of damage, but it can't multiply that damage against numbers the way that Blaze, firewall, meteor, blizzard, and particularly Frozen Orb can. Of all the fire tree skills, only Firewall is more mana hungry than Hydra, and generally I recommend moderate to high levels of Warmth skill to support your Hydra use.
Here are some examples of how I used Hydra, on the decision to stack or spread. Against Fallen Shamen types, I spread. A stack may miss once the target starts moving, and he will. Spreading ensures more hits and less likelihood the target will move out of range, thus generally offering a faster kill. Against Unraveler types, though, I stack. Their skeletons are slower, more numerous, and they are only encountered indoors. Against rogue archers, I spread. They are quick and more apt to move around, even to a point of chasing you if you retreat too far. Against Act 2 Leapers, I spread. This lets me stay mobile and continually use the Hydras as rolling artillery support. Against Teleporters, I spread wide and hard, as many Hydras as I can get out there covering as much area as possible, though still generally not wider apart from end to end than one screen width. This may mean a spread of three here, a spread of four there, and some stragglers spaced out. Against Act 3 and 4 Leapers, I spread, but only a little if leapers are the only thing attacking. Stacking might have too many of them targeting one foe and thus missing another. The object is too keep them away from me and spreading them a little bit helps. If there are melee attackers in the mix, I will spread wider, because I may be forced to move. At a doorway, beyond which lies a roomful of targets, I will stack through the door, right at the door. When I can safely do so, I'll move up to or near the door and spread some more around inside. Hydras are ideal for making a stand at a choke point of any kind, because they can do your dirty work for you while all you have to do is defend against or distract one or two melee opponents at a time. Against a tough boss I will usually spread the hydras, and do the same for a large mob if there is plenty of room to work with. If space is cramped and there's no foothold yet, I'm more apt to stack them in hopes of thinning the crowd more quickly even at the expense of taking longer overall to get all the kills. If you stack the hydras, you must stay close to the stack or you move out of range and shots will miss. I prefer to put more distance between myself and the targets, once the hydras are there, whenever possible.
Ultimately, you'll have to decide your own stack vs spread policy based on how you use your hydras, what other skills you have, your items, health, mana, Warmth, and the situations at hand. Experiment to find what works best for you then go with it.
Finally, comparing hydra with meteor. This comparison is patently unfair due to the broken nature of Fire Mastery (which, up through v1.06, does not work with Hydra). However, even if mastery did work with Hydra, Meteor would still be stronger because it deals its damage in one big hit and can pound a wide area of effect. Stronger isn't always better, though. You must expose yourself to enemy ranged attacker to slay them with meteor. Hydras can be cast around corners, through doors (open or closed), on the edge of the screen. Hydras also persist. You can raise them, then depart, or summon them then passively lure a target into their range and strand him there. You can set traps with hydras. All these things make hydra strategically superior across the board. However, tactically, meteor will always be stronger and more precise.
The most telling fact is that you can still get most of the benefit from hydra at low levels. You can still scout, still shoot around corners, still raise sentinels and guards. Maxed meteor backed by a bit of Hydra gets nearly the best of both worlds. The converse just isn't true. Low level meteor stops being reliable in a hurry. Thus, as things now stand, the meteor sorcie is the mistress of tactical combat, the epitome of precision, and the queen of fire. However, the hydra sorcie will always remain the mistress of control, humilator of fools, and the queen of style. If you are a fan of the Fire Tree, neither experience should be missed.
FIRE MASTERY
This skill has no prerequisites. As with Hydra, it's not available until clvl 30, so that pretty much means it's a skill for Nightmare and beyond, not for Normal.
Fire Mastery adds bonus damage to all your fire skills -- or at least it's supposed to. In v1.06 and earlier, it is bugged and does not boost Hydra damage.
Of all three Mastery skills, this one makes the most sense to pump the highest (except Cold Mastery for PvP operations, but that's another story). In general, Fire Mastery breathes new life into your fire skills, juicing up their damage rates without increasing mana cost or further affecting framerates.
Clearly, the most benefit is to be found at the earliest levels. Taking the skill to slvl 5, either naturally or with help from +skills items, gets you an extra 60% damage. If you are using fire skills as a situational attack with a versatile sorcie, you will still want at least five points in Fire Mastery, eventually. Fire Sorcies and particularly Hot Babes will benefit from more. How much more depends on the rest of your character. You will have to make your own choice here.
Some target numbers for Fire Mastery include slvl 2 (32%), slvl 5 (60%), slvl 6 (66%), slvl 9, (79%), and slvl 11 (85%). After that, the returns diminish severely, and would only be worthwhile for a very high level sorcie who has maxed everything else of interest (maxed not necessarily meaning slvl 20, depends on the skill and its applications).
ENCHANT
This skill is a prerequisite for Hydra. For almost all characters, this is the only reason to invest in this skill, and a one point investment will suffice for that. Enchant adds some fire damage to weapon-based attacks, including melee, bows, and thrown weapons.
The amount added is hefty for the time period in which the skill becomes available: Act 2 Normal. The increase with added skill levels is only one more damage point per skill level, though, and the added mana cost is extreme, so these factors make pumping this skill up an unattractive option, to say the least. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that Fire Mastery does affect Enchant damage. The other thing to remember is that enemy fire resistance also affects Enchant damage.
There are only three uses for Enchant. First, it's a primary skill for the weapon-oriented sorceress character. If you are using weapons, particularly melee, but also bows or thrown weapons, as a primary attack form or even a frequent situational attack form, then Enchant would be useful. This is the only situation when you might want to invest more than one skill point. Even an Enchant specialist would be hard pressed to want to invest more than a few points here, though, due to the extreme mana cost increase per use.
The other situations for Enchant use pertain only to Enchant as prereq for Hydra. If you have to invest a skill point to get to Hydra, and you have Enchant just lying around, you might as well use it. It's useful as melee support all the way through normal difficulty if your sorcie bothers to swing, shoot or throw a weapon at all. And Enchant never goes out of style as a support skill for coop partners. If you happen to have any +skills items, they can seriously boost the damage and duration of Enchant in combo with Fire Mastery, to make it still worth bothering with for any allies that don't have insane weapon damages. You needn't bother for Martel barbs, but most paladins and amazons will appreciate it, as will any character with low damage or rapid attacks: jab, zeal, fend, frenzy... you might as well. Every little bit helps, and over the course of two or three minutes, Enchant can end up doing hundreds, if not thousands, of bonus fire damage for busy allies.
You cannot cast Enchant on coop partners while in town, unfortunately, but you can cast it on yourself there. It can also be tough to cast it on moving players. Expect to miss now and then, and "waste" the casting. You have to directly target an ally to cast Enchant upon them. Otherwise it affects you. Also, you can renew Enchant before it expires, even though it won't show the fire swirl.
I am looking forward to seeing what changes this skill undergoes in the Expansion Pack. I am hoping they add some moderate Attack Rating bonuses, for one thing.
WARMTH
This skill is a prerequisite for Enchant and Hydra. Contrary to what others might say, Warmth is a matter of personal preferences, playing styles and skill selections. To some, maxed Warmth is essential, while to others, Warmth at all is an afterthought at best. How much should you put into Warmth? Let's take a look.
Warmth suffers from the same diminishing returns per skill point invested as many other skills like Fire Mastery, Find Potion, and Salvation. Yes, you still get some benefit from each added point, but each point added offers less benefit than the point before it, at least in terms of percentages. However, Warmth is also a linear skill in that it offers you a certain amount of extra mana regenerated per second, per skill level. How much Warmth you want and when to invest into it, depends on many factors, but the one you should never lose sight of is how much mana per second you are regenerating vs how much you actually NEED to maintain your playstyle.
Every skill point devoted to Warmth is TAKEN AWAY from other skills you could have invested in. From the perspective of the clvl 80 character, it doesn't matter, because they can have max warmth and two other skills maxed and prereqs and defense handled and still have points left over. However, from the viewpoint of the clvl 20, clvl 30, clvl 40, even clvl 50 character, Warmth is a serious matter that will affect your gameplay for the worse, one way or another, if you mismanage it.
Level 7 Warmth recovers mana at double the normal rate. To double THAT rate again (4x mana recovery) you need to go all the way to skill level 24 warmth. Now to get to 24 warmth, you need at least +4 to fire skills from items. That same +4 applies to a level 3 warmth to get to level 7 total. So in effect, given +4 to skills from items, you can get double mana recovery for THREE skill points invested into Warmth, but must invest seventeen more points to double that yet again.
So as with Fire Mastery, you get the most benefit from the first few points of Warmth. Frankly, unless you are playing a specialist sorcie with Cold-Only or Lightning-Only, there's no reason NOT to invest at least ONE point into Warmth. That alone makes a marked difference in mana recovery, reducing the time it takes to refill from empty to 92 seconds, down from 120 with no Warmth. That's big.
It takes two full minutes to recharge mana from empty to full with no Warmth. It takes 92 seconds with slvl 1 warmth, 60 seconds with slvl 7 Warmth, 44 seconds with slvl 13 Warmth, 33.5 seconds with slvl 20 Warmth, and 28 seconds with slvl 25 Warmth. However, all of this depends on your total amount of mana.
Using Magefist will add the equivalent of three extra levels of warmth to your mana regen. A Frostburn will add equivalent of four to seven extra levels of Warmth to your mana regen, depending on other factors. The Wall of the Eyeless shield can also substitute for Warmth, but depends on your kill rate and loses effectiveness against tougher foes. Civerb's Icon, Lenymo and Heavenly Garb can increase mana regen, and items like Nightsmoke or Howltusk can offer some mana recovery when you take damage, although that is not particularly desired. The more Warmth your character has, the less important these sort of items become.
The only tree that really suffers from level 6 to 18 is the cold tree. And it seems to me that players pursuing the ubersorcie, with lvl 20 blizz or FO, are the most prone to completely sucking it up during this time, trying to make do on Ice Blast alone, and thus getting the FALSE impression that gadzooks of warmth are needed just to survive.
Mana management is a matter of style, choice and efficiency. For example: if you don't have tanks (Barbarians or chars with minions) to team up with, you can't take out chasers with just firewall unless you blanket the screen or use extreme tactics. Someone trying to blanket the screen will need 1000 mana every fight, or nearly so. A little blaze in the same situation, and yeah, you have to do a little mousework running around, but how is this different from the mousework you have to do running around inside the firewall zone? The difference is that you can get the same kills with 40 mana instead of 1000. But then you have to pump Blaze (and some Fire Mastery) and this means a different plan than most "guide writers" are suggesting. Now is the 40 mana way "better" than the 1000 way? Not necessarily! If Blanket the Screen is your thing, that's fine, you'll need to max that Warmth. But that's far from the only way to get the job done.
Those who insist on maxed Warmth are the same players who advise a virtual indiscriminate use of the highest mana spells. But there is more than one way to beat the game. How much warmth is most efficient at clvl 20, at 30, at 40? If you've maxed Warmth by level 40, and spent 7 to 10 in prereqs, then you either have ONE modest attack spell and no defense, or no serious attack spells at all yet. This is not the way to build an ubersorcie, IMHO. One thing these folks who preach high warmth often forget to mention, is that their plans apply to clvl 60, or 70, or even 90, in a "dream setup" and NOT to a level 30 character with slvl 20 warmth. WHEN to add to warmth is just as important as how much to add.
Among Fire Tree skills, the ones that need Warmth the most are Firewall, Meteor and Fireball, in that order. Hydra can benefit from Warmth a great deal, also, because it's so costly, but you CAN get by without it because its very efficient over time, with a healthy duration. Inferno has some need for Warmth, while Firebolt and particularly Blaze need little to none at all. The skill that most demands help from Warmth is the very powerful but mana hungry Frozen Orb. In fact, this is the ONLY skill the sorceress has in which adding points to Warmth before pumping up the skill itself is desirable for mana efficiency. Every other sorcie skill, including all of the Fire Tree skills, benefit more from pumping up the skill itself than from leaving it low level and adding to Warmth. Keep that in mind as you mana your mana: Every skill point devoted to Warmth is TAKEN AWAY from other skills you could have invested in.
Warmth requires thought, so it give it some.
WHEN to pump Warmth is just as important to your strategy as HOW MUCH you eventually plan to get. If you get too little warmth for your playstyle, you'll feel it. But you can correct that by using mana pots for a while and pumping the warmth for a few levels or slowing down your pace for a few levels. On the other hand, if you go too far and put too much into Warmth too soon, and find yourself stuck without the offensive power to get the job done, you are stuck. Keep that in mind as you allocate your skill points.
Whatever you choose, choose it because it fits with your own style and plans, not because someone else told you that you need it or don't need it. Look at the numbers, fit them to your own character(s), and decide for yourself!
FIRE RESISTANT OPPONENTS
Fire Enchanted Bosses (FEBs): these are the arch-enemy of the Fire Sorcie and particularly of the Hot Babe. All FEBs have the maximum possible Fire Resistance, which is 75%. They will take considerably longer to kill with fire-only, on top of their already boosted life. This can mean as much as 32 times as tough as a regular monster of that type, not even counting other possible boss enhancements. Bosses are where the real danger mainly lies in the later difficulties, and FEBs will take the longest to kill, unless you borrow help from other trees. The list of Super Unique FEBs includes: Bishibosh, the Countess, Flamespike the Crawler, Fire Eye, Witch Doctor Endugu, Geleb Flamefinger, and the Grand Vizier of Chaos. However, in Nightmare and particularly Hell, where bosses gain extra random abilities, any boss can show up as a FEB. Andariel, who is supposed to be vulnerable to fire, is actually bugged in v1.03 and earlier and has max fire resistance.
Magic Resistant bosses: same story as FEBs, they are maximally resistant. The list of Super Uniques that are Magic Resistant (but not already FEB) by default includes: Bonebreaker, Bone Ash, Beetleburst, Ancient Kaa, and Hephasto. Izual has some resistance but not a lot. Duriel also has some fire resistance. The really bad news on Magic Resistant bosses, however, is that you won't gain much help from skills in other trees.
Fallen Shamen: Although their resistance and life are low in Normal, you will notice their toughness in Nightmare, and in Hell they are particularly resilient, with max resistance and hefty life. Boss packs are particularly mean, as you must kill the boss first, or else take out the minions with help from cold spells that will shatter the corpse (meaning mainly GS). Hydras and Firewalls work best here, although Meteors and to a lesser extent Fireballs and Inferno can also work. Forget Blaze, it's useless here.
Burning Dead: merely an annoyance in Normal, these foes become maximally resistant in Nightmare and will give Fire Sorcies fits in Hell. Fortunately they are slow and stupid, but even so you will have to be careful.
Hell Clan: highly resistant goats in the Arcane Sanctuary. These are so tough in Hell as to warrant help from other skills unless you are a Hot Babe, in which case you will have to be extremely careful. A couple hits from these things will drop you like a stone, while it takes forever to whittle them down even with your strongest and best attack plans.
Cloud Stalkers: low resistance and low health. You might not even know they are resistant, but they are. They resist lightning even more, though, so only cold dispatches them without fuss. They are found only in the Spider Forest and are more a pest than anything else.
Wailing Beasts: found only in the various Temples of Kurast, these can pose a serious threat in those tight quarters, particularly if there is a boss or champions. Use extreme caution.
Hierophants: found only in Travincal, these toughest of the Zakarum priests are fire resistant, and maximally so in Hell. Add in the ability to heal one another, particularly in packs, AND to heal via teleport, and you are looking at some serious firewall bait here. With my prototype Hot Babe, I found myself stacking the low-level firewalls on these puppies in Hell Act 3 to the degree of emptying my whole mana ball on just ONE of them at a time, in most cases. A boss pack can pose an extreme threat. Be careful.
Warped Ones: these weak things are nevertheless fire resistant. They show up only as boss or champ packs, with minions, in Act 3 temples, mainly the Durance of Hate. This is another one in the category of the Cloud Stalkers, except that since you only encounter them as bosses and champs with minions, they can take a little bit of work to kill. Don't get careless with them.
Balrogs: these Act 4 foes are speedy and maximally resistant even in Normal Difficulty. They are just cannon fodder to Cold and Lightning Sorcies, but are a serious foe to Fire Sorcies. Take them VERY seriously if you don't want to end up dead. They are candidates for Tempting Fate, but be careful.
Doom Knights: another maximally fire resistant Act 4 foe, found in the Steppes and Plains, but also in the Chaos Sanctuary. They are slow, thankfully, and thus die with less protest -- to Blaze, Meteor or Hydra -- than the speedier Balrogs, but must be handled with extreme care. Do not Tempt Fate: maintain distance.
Doom Casters, Stranglers: highly resistant, but thankfully fairly low health. Use caution, maintain distance, and if your lag is tolerable, be willing to Tempt Fate with these guys. Their attack animation is very slow.
Stormcasters: like Stranglers, but hardier and with maxed fire resistance. Found only in the CS.
Abyss Knights: only moderately resistant, these foes are nevertheless quite dangerous. Be careful. Found only in the City of the Damned and the River of Flame.
Oblivion Knights: not quite maximally resistant, they nevertheless are tough. Extreme caution.
Cliff Lurkers: quite simply the nemesis of the Fire Sorcie. Found only in the Steppes, these monsters pose more threat than anything else short of a boss or perhaps Oblivion Knights in numbers. Hydras are the best way to defeat these leapers with fire. The worst draw you can get in the game from the perspective of Fire Skills is an Act 4 Steppes with Cliff Lurkers, Doom Knights and Venom Lords. Yikes. :)
Tree Lurkers: act three version of leapers, found only in Lower Kurast. These pests have maximum fire resistance. Handle with care.
Fire Resistant Bosses: bosses gain the same resistances as their base creature type, meaning that all Fallen Shaman type boss packs are highly resistant or worse, that all Balrog bosses including the Infector have maxed fire resistance, and so on. A Hierophant or Wailing Beast or Hell Clan boss pack can spell real trouble, but generally the worst ones to deal with will be found in Act 4, thankfully not too often. Be careful and stay alert.
Spectral Hit Bosses: gain some extra fire resistance. It's not much, but you should still be aware of this, as in cases with already somewhat resistant foes, it can make a bigger difference, getting them closer to max.
Also of note is that fire will not shatter corpses, so if you aren't using any cold, you will have to apply some special tactics to situations where monsters can raise minions from the dead. This is particularly tough on fireball and inferno, but firewall, meteor and hydra can all be cast behind the lines to directly target offending shaman types.
Fire Sorcies and Hot Babes have it worst of any Sorceress in the Chaos Sanctuary, where all three Seal bosses and crews are highly fire resistant all the time, and the only critters there that AREN'T maximally resistant are the Oblivion Knights. Yummy. :) Take your best shot, and good luck.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
The Fire Tree is the true thinking player's skill tree. There's something available here for every situation, and the amount of fun you can have with these skills is limited only by your imagination and your ability to manage your risks. This is one of, if not the, best-balanced skill trees for any class in the game. And though it can stand alone (it's great fun playing a Hot Babe) it can also shine more brightly if used in combination with the other trees. What you do with it is up to you. There are lessons you can learn while using this tree that will, frankly, make you a better, stronger player all around.
Also, I personally am a believer in Staying Alive. I hate dying. That's not to say that I hate taking risks. I don't. That's the best part of the game, pushing yourself rather than dallying around on boring experience runs. This is why I don't have any high level characters. Three Dots for me means nearing retirement, if not already retired. What all of this means to me is Vitality. I'm a firm believer in high levels of Vitality. I'd rather play AS IF it's Hardcore, all the time, and try never to die, than to build everything into mana and trying to clear out all the opposition quickly, with frequent deaths taken for granted. If you can't tell, I could care less about the ladder or about building an uberchar. I think in general, the Fire Tree fits this temperament, and I advise modest to heavy investment in Vitality if you opt for Fire Skills instead of SF + Cold. For a character that will be ENDING her career at level 50-55, this means almost a one to one life to mana ratio, and this runs counter to what most guides would advise. I tried not to let this mindset completely cloud my advice one way or the other, however, so even for those looking to build Tweaker-style fast moving and fast dying characters who can level up or clear areas quickly, there should be something in here for you, too.
Finally, if anything comes closest to the Diablo 1 Sorcerer -- in terms of HOW the game plays out, what you have to do as a player to succeed, and what the experience feels like -- it is playing a Fire Sorcie. The situational knowledge and awareness of small details you need is comparable, and IMO that's a good thing. I loved the Diablo 1 Sorcerer. :)
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