I have noticed in almost all Wizard builds that use Hydra, Venom Hydra is the rune selected. And I'm curious - why? It doesn't do as much damage as the others. I am assuming it's because it has a slow mechanic? Yet it's not mentioned in the description (Unless I'm blind and missed it which is possible)
It shoots a poison orb that drops a puddle when it hits. Any mobs in the puddle take extra damage, meaning slow moving mobs or bosses take a lot of extra damage. I believe the puddle stacks up to 5 times too.
EDIT: It does not slow, which is why blizzard is often used in builds with venom hydra. Arcane hydra will slow if you have Temporal Flux passive though, which is the only other rune used in any of the popular Inferno builds.
I have noticed in almost all Wizard builds that use Hydra, Venom Hydra is the rune selected. And I'm curious - why? It doesn't do as much damage as the others. I am assuming it's because it has a slow mechanic? Yet it's not mentioned in the description (Unless I'm blind and missed it which is possible)
It does more damage than any (assuming the mobs stand in the pools for a bit) and does not in fact have an associated slow.
venom is by far the highest damage hydra due to the poison stacking if you can't get them to stand it long enough, try kiting in a circle around them rather than in a straight line back or forward
It just works out to a lot, lot more damage due to the puddles staying around, and the puddles stacking, and the puddles being AOE.
Stacking is the main reason. If you can get an elite pack to stand in one place (f.e. with the help of a tank monk or barb), the pools will stack 3-4 times for a total of around 100% of your weapon damage per second. Which is insane for a DoT ability, to say the least.
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EDIT: It does not slow, which is why blizzard is often used in builds with venom hydra. Arcane hydra will slow if you have Temporal Flux passive though, which is the only other rune used in any of the popular Inferno builds.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
It does more damage than any (assuming the mobs stand in the pools for a bit) and does not in fact have an associated slow.