Hydra Question Hello, I have two quick questions regarding the Hydra spell. 1) How many frames is the cast animation for Hydra? 2) Does the cast animation interrupt ctc hydras (Such as in the Dragon Runeword)?
AD 1. it uses normal FCR breakpoints(not the lightning/chain lightning/ inferno ones) AD 2. I'm not entirely sure what do you mean... do you ask about a situation when you're trying to cast a hydra, and in the middle of your cast animation a proc from equpiment happens casting another hydra? If that's the case I'd guess it's impossible to cast a hydra and get a proc at the same time since the only ctc hydra equipment I saw had ctc on strike, and you can't strike and cast at the same time, so no matter how it is coded it won't interrupt your casting animation... hope this helps
Thanks Flayed One, What I mean is: Say for example I have a 5-frame attack whilst using the Dragon Runeword. Will my attack be constantly interrupted by the cast animation from when Hydra procs (12% ctc lev.15 Hydra on striking)?
Depends on the skill you're using. If you're using an interruptable attack (standard attack, any weredruid attacks, double swing, Charge), then yes your attack will be constantly interrupted. If you're using an uninterruptable attack (Concentrate, Zeal, Strafe iirc), then your attack shouldn't be interrupted. Just a note- you don't actually cast Hydra when it procs, and you don't go through the casting animation... it's just that whenever you trigger a proc of a spell that normally has a casting delay (Hydra, Frozorb, etc), all interruptable skills will be redded out for a handful of frames. Not a big deal, although it can get annoying from time to time.
Thanks for the info SSoG! So basically a 4-5 frame Fireclaws with dual Dragon Runewords won't really work the way I had hoped . . . ie. minimum of one Hydra cast per second, and uninterrupted Fireclaws. I'm sad now . . . Could I alternatively equip FCR gear and reduce the Proc delay? When you say "handful of frames" how many frames are you talking about?
Nope, and around five frames maybe? You could always test yourself; just get your meteorb out, put fireball on left click, throw a meteor and note how the fireball icon goes red. Any other timered/non-timered combo should work as well, doesn't have to be meteor/fireball.
Thanks Delreich, Unfortunately, I don't have a "meteorb" (and don't really even know what that is!). These questions are actually for a proposed Fireclaw/Armageddon Druid that would be using twin Dragon Runewords to create (theoretically) a buttload of Hydras. Hence, my questions regarding the interaction between Hydra "Proc"ing and attacking with fireclaws at the same time. I am more or less trying to find out how to balance equipment and attack speed to make this build work, or if it would even be worth it to try it at all. I just figured that I could get the most accurate information about the Hydra spell from the Sorceress forum, as opposed to the Druid forum . . .
You should still be getting off a Hydra per second or so. The interruption is pretty minor- I always call it a "hitch in your giddyup"- and isn't a big deal. Think of Fireclaws and Hydra as two separate attacks that each take about 5 frames. Sometimes you spend 5 frames attacking with Fireclaws, sometimes you spend 5 frames "casting" Hydra. Faster Cast Rate will not reduce the Proc Delay. As I said, you're not really "casting" the spell, you don't go through the animation. It's just that all skills with casting delays actually have TWO delays hardcoded in- the first is the actual casting delay, during which you cannot cast any other timered spells. The second is a drastically briefer (maybe 5 or 6 frames) lockout where you can't use any interruptable skills. You could no more reduce the duration of the lockout than you could reduce the duration of the timer- they're hardcoded. They don't change. Like I said, though, it's really just a short little hitch in your giddyup, and won't noticeably slow down your killspeed.
Thanks again SSoG! That means that Twin Dragons is still possible . . . excellent!! Now here's one more related question (if you have the patience that is). . . How many ctc spells can Proc at one time? For example. if I wear two Carrion Wind rings each with 8% chance to cast lev. 13 Twister, obviously they will be subject to the same Proc delay as Hydra, but will they interfere with the chance to Proc Hydra? Does one take precedence over another, or can they Proc simultaneously?
Only one skill can proc on each attack, so overlapping procs will very slightly reduce the chances of one or the other triggering. I don't know if there's a heirarchy as to which skill procs if they both trigger at the same time. I'd imagine there has to be (i.e. this piece takes precedence over this piece). I know that there is with proc'd curses (for instance, I know for a fact that if Hit Causes Monster To Flee and Hit Blinds Target both trigger at the same time, the HCMTF will take precedence and the monster will become terrified, not blinded). I've never bothered to test the entire proc heirarchy, though. It might be possible that which proc takes precedence has to do with some gear-location priority system. For instance, I know that when you pick up your corpse, the game re-equips all of your gear in a very specific order. It might be possible that when it goes through the Proc checks, it goes through the same order. Like I said, I've never bothered testing here, so I'm really just speculating out loud.
On a similar note, is the duration of Hydra always 10 seconds? If so, what's the maximum number of Hydras possible on the screen ar once? If it's one per second, is that 10 hydra's at once???
Depends on the attack. I mean, speaking from a purely theoretical standpoint, if an Amazon hits an 8/2 strafe (10 arrows in 26 frames), and every single one of those arrows triggers a Hydra (extremely, extremely, extremely unlikely- but theoretically possible), and the "hitch in the giddyup" between strafes is 6 frames (just a number I threw out there), then that's 10 hydras every 32 frames, it it would be *THEORETICALLY POSSIBLE* to get 80 Hydras on screen at once. Of course, that would never happen. Of course, disregarding the fact that you'd need a monster capable of SURVIVING 80 hydras who didn't once put you in blocklock, d/a/e lock, hit recovery, or death, the odds of 80 hits and triggers on a strafer are probably similar to the odds of Ball dropping 4 zods and a CoA in one drop. From a practical standpoint, using my Zealsorc, I had no problem getting 10 Hydras onscreen at once.
