Hydroid - Anyone Use Him Often?

[FarStike]

I caved in and bought the Hydroid U13 bundle over the weekend. I've played all frames bar Banshee and Zephyr (Both cone out of my foundry gates tomorrow) and usually have a feel for a new frame within the first 15 levels. (Courtesy of playing Loki as one of my first frames and some great forum advice on how to play him)

 

The first time I used Hydroid's puddle power I laughed so hard (thanks DE :) ) Really was worth it just for that effect.

 

However, I'm struggling to find some value in Hydroid. Are there specific ways to make use of his powers? Utility? Does he scale into void? Is there anything he's good at?

 

I would like to give him more of a chance and am just not seeing the value in him currently.

 

Thanks Tennos', eager to hear from you.

[Satinpuppies]

Not sure if they ever removed that one use cap on his barrage... they said they were going to but i don't think they ever did.

[Amorax]

I don't use him myself, but one of my friends use him for a strategy we do in T4 Defense. He covers one side of the map and gets all enemies in his pool. Once the majority have come and fell into his pool, me or one other friend counts down and we activate both lasers on that side at the same time as he gets out of his pool, killing almost all enemies in one go. This usually results in him dying as well, but we revive him afterwards of course. I'm not sure how well this will go with randoms though.

 

It's a decent strategy that has gotten us pretty far in the waves. It takes away a lot of the pressure on one side while the rest focuses on the other side and picks off the few targets that didn't get into the pool.

[FarStike]

I don't use him myself, but one of my friends use him for a strategy we do in T4 Defense. He covers one side of the map and gets all enemies in his pool. Once the majority have come and fell into his pool, me or one other friend counts down and we activate both lasers on that side at the same time as he gets out of his pool, killing almost all enemies in one go. This usually results in him dying as well, but we revive him afterwards of course. I'm not sure how well this will go with randoms though.

 

It's a decent strategy that has gotten us pretty far in the waves. It takes away a lot of the pressure on one side while the rest focuses on the other side and picks off the few targets that didn't get into the pool.

Now that's a clever strategy and worth trying :) Thank for for sharing it. Please ask your mate how he has modded the build. I'm assuming Stretch etc?

[_Fracture8]

[Nira]

Haha, puddle power.

 

Hydroid is one of my most-used frames and probably favourite to use purely because of the fun factor. He is just wacky. On a more practical level, his strengths for me lie in knockdowns, area-of-denial, and general CC. I build mine with Natural Talent, full efficiency and negative duration. This makes his abilities much more spammable.

 

As well as being hilarious, Undertow can be used as a trap much like Amorax says, though I've only ever seen done it with Penta grenades. Seeing as Hydroid cannot take damage in puddle form it can also be a great panic button if you're about to get downed.

 

It took me a while to get into the swing of him but you can be really quite relentless with the knockdowns and mobility. He's not the tankiest of frames, with most of his damage mitigation lying in knocking stuff down or turning into a puddle. So wouldn't recommend him for an extended T4 survival, for example.

Edited October 13, 2014 by Dualice

[Otenko]

From what I can tell, all of his skills buy you (and possibly your allies) some breathing room. Everything he has knocks down or incapacitates enemies in some fashion.

 

I see a lot of usage of Tentacle Swarm as area denial, but at the same time it makes it harder for allies to shoot a tentacle'd enemy. Also, if more enemies don't spawn, then it can work at least to have everyone regenerate shields or reload or whatever for enemies that it doesn't kill.

 

Undertow provides you with breathing room at least. It's probably one of the better self affecting panic buttons in the game. You can plop down and regen shields as well as holding some problem enemies.  As well, you can use it to cover some defense objectives for enemies that approach.

 

Tidal Surge knocks enemies down and gives you invincibility during the animation while also being a decent mobility tool through crowds. Although the invincibility isn't as long as Undertow's can be. But the move starts pretty fast, so you can use it on a heavy in front of you (and their radial blast might not knock you down while Tidal Surging, but I'm not totally sure about that).

 

Tempest Barrage (my personal favorite of his skills) is nice in that you can aim it, whereas most skills affect a radius around you. Otherwise, it's just an inexpensive AoE knockdown. Allegedly, it can have some holes inside the Tempest Barrage area if you maximize power range on it.

 

I don't know if you know all of this already, but this is what strikes me after seeing his skill set.

[Amorax]

 

Now that's a clever strategy and worth trying :) Thank for for sharing it. Please ask your mate how he has modded the build. I'm assuming Stretch etc?

 

According to the wiki, his pool doesn't get affected by power range. So Stretch will only have negative effects on it. Duration also has no effect on his pool because he can stay in it as long as he has energy. So max efficiency seems to be the most important for pool. Damage works too of course, but you plan on killing them in one go with the lasers.

Edited October 13, 2014 by Amorax

[Rekkou]

I used him pretty often, mostly in solo though.

 

-Tempest Barrage is a good and cheap CC, it can constantly knockdown a group of enemies and more reliable on open space. Use it if you can focus on range and duration.

-Tidal Surge can be a close quarter cc if you keep the duration low and the range high. And can be a mobility tool if you increase the duration.

-Undertow has more usage than it seems, you can use it to save yourself from danger and wait for your shield to regenerate (reload still continues), or you can use it for quick radial knockdown by tapping 3 twice.

-Tentacle Swarm has good damage on mid level. On high level, it works to temporarily remove threat and block passage while you focus on another group of enemies. Contrary to Tempest Barrage, Tentacle Swarm is more reliable on tight corridor. But the problem is, the duration is too long, you either have to wait for the duration to end or trying to shoot the enemies while they're being tossed around.

 

My advise is that, you use only 3 abilities. If you can focus on duration, use Tempest Barrage, Tidal Surge (as mobility tool) and Undertow. If you're keeping the duration low then focus on Tidal surge (as CQ CC), undertow, and Tentacle Swarm

[[DE]Momaw]

Not a fan personally.  Yeah he has a lot of CC, but it's all....flaky and stuff.  Tempest Barrage and Tentacles both do not allow you to use the ability multiple times nor even move the ability's active area once cast.  They are also, frankly, unreliable. Enemies can wander through the ability areas without getting hit by the CC. The weirder the terrain, the more likely this is to happen, and the higher the level, the less you can survive any enemies failing to get CCed. Tidal Surge is a great way to get around since modding for duration will make it launch you quite a distance, but because it only knocks enemies down rather than slowing or controlling them, they get up about as fast as you can turn around point your gun at them again.  Undertow.... The only practical use for this I have found is to flick it on and off quickly and just use it for the knockdown on anybody that got sucked in.  Both Tentacles and Undertow make it impossible for your team to actually shoot at whatever you are CCing, which is meh.

 

In the end I feel like Hydroid is pointless.  If you want a pure hard CC frame, bring Vauban. He's a lot better at it, spamming crowd control fixtures all over the map while still allowing the team to remove the affected enemies. Or if you want a soft CC frame then Nyx.

Edited October 13, 2014 by Momaw

[Mesyra]

this^ 

 

I would love to get a hydroid systems some time this year :|

[FarStike]

Yes my first thought whilst working through his powers was, well he is ... Weird :)

 

Thank you for the insights, definitely some useful tactics to try out. I don't think he is for me though. I'm kind of ADD with the game - very active, pacing whilst waiting for mobs etc :) He may be just a little too laid back for me.

 

I'm a huge Nyx fan to the earlier poster.

[GinKenshin]

since his powers mostly do impact damage, I suggest u use him with corpus

as for strategies, he's really useful in infested defense, just jump on the pod, press 3 and let your teammates deal with the enemies that didn't get in the pool, and then let then go, easy and effective 

another way is to use his 4th ability in a very narrow place, so the tentacles will kill everything that passes throw that place, also use his 2nd ability to just slide other the map, it has pretty good range

and the best thing about him is his 3rd ability, is that he's G3 proof, I take him everytime I go to grineer mission and have a G3 mark on me, though it doesn't work with mr.stalker 

[Phoenix86]

I'm leveling him right now and i agree it's kinda funny to play...

 

i'm personally not liking his #1... i find it somehow "hard" to aim properly...

 

i end up using the other 3 skills a lot, combining #2 and #3 together when rushing or #3 and #4 in defenese missions...

 

i would personally not use him in survivals... i dont feel like his powers are effective there

 

All in all i think i would rather play Vauban

Edited October 13, 2014 by Phoenix86

[pokeyoface]

I'm leveling him right now and i agree it's kinda funny to play...

 

i'm personally not liking his #1... i find it somehow "hard" to aim properly...

 

i end up using the other 3 skills a lot, combining #2 and #3 together when rushing or #3 and #4 in defenese missions...

 

i would personally not use him in survivals... i dont feel like his powers are effective there

 

All in all i think i would rather play Vauban

my advice on trying to aim the #1 better is to try to use it on chokepoints and try to get a good feel for the delay

 

Edit: Also for extra lols make your energy color yellow so you drown your enemies in pee...or lemonade

Edited October 13, 2014 by pokeyoface

[Phoenix86]

my advice on trying to aim the #1 better is to try to use it on chokepoints and try to get a good feel for the delay

 

Edit: Also for extra lols make your energy color yellow so you drown your enemies in pee...or lemonade

 

eheheh, i preferred dark red to look like a puddle of blood but the transparent water effect ruins it!!

 

After a few color changes i went back to standard blue'ish

 

About the aiming yeah i'm trying... because basically #4 has the same problem... but it is somehow easier to land... idk why... it's just me i guess...

[Vorsches]

I don't use him myself, but one of my friends use him for a strategy we do in T4 Defense. He covers one side of the map and gets all enemies in his pool. Once the majority have come and fell into his pool, me or one other friend counts down and we activate both lasers on that side at the same time as he gets out of his pool, killing almost all enemies in one go. This usually results in him dying as well, but we revive him afterwards of course. I'm not sure how well this will go with randoms though.

 

It's a decent strategy that has gotten us pretty far in the waves. It takes away a lot of the pressure on one side while the rest focuses on the other side and picks off the few targets that didn't get into the pool.

This is so brilliant.

[Phoenix86]

This is so brilliant.

 

I tought it was a common strategy to lure all enemies in the puddle of death and then use aoe weapons/lazors/whatever to blast em out all together

[FarStike]

I'm still chuckling about the idea of changing his energy to make his puddle look ... um, shall we say ... unappetizing? LOL.

[God_is_a_Cat_Girl]

I really like him and it's a shame that I don't use him more often because I'm too busy building some other frame.

 

What I did was to simply have multiple setups going accordingly with the mission type. If I need to be more defensive (Def or MD) I get some duration, if I want to be more offensive (Ext, cap, etc) I don't get as much duration so I can spam the abilities more often.

 

He's great at knocking down enemies. When we had the Hyena Facility alert, I used him most of the time, because tempest barrage was cheap and would knockdown the Hyenas. At some point my party was stuck on a really, really tight corridor with enemies from every side and 1 of the sides had 5 Hyenas ready to rape us. But then I used Tempest Barrage, and every Hyena and enemy on that side was put down on the ground, and the constant knockdown made it so we kill them without getting downed a single time, since only 1 of the Hyenas managed to attack us, once.

What makes it so he doesn't shine more is that since his abilities are more CC based, if you are on a mission where your party just 1 hit everything on sight, you won't be using your abilities as much, since the "slow" activation plus not being abilities that deal tons of damage is a very small time frame.

[FarStike]

Thanks Sorrow +1 for your insight!

 

Realised last night the only frame I'm missing now is the standard Loki (Got the Loki Prime pack). Hyena bosses I think? This looks like good synergy for Hydroid. Will try this one over the weekend.

 

I'm getting the impression that Hydroid is kind of like the unsung hero in the right missions. Not a bright shining star but a balancer for when things get dicey and your team know what to expect when you do weird things - like become a puddle :)

 

I'm going to give him more of a chance and experiment with him a bit over time. My gut feel though is he is too laid back a frame for my style. But he sure is funny :)

[Oriviagene]

Just got hydroid last week and love his tempest barrage and tidal surge,his puddle power and tentacle swarm seems meh for me tho >.<

[ivlr3vil]

For the moment, I use a max narrowminded build for a long duration tempest barrage and a very controlled tentacle swarm.

 

You can go for short duration spammable tentacles with a max fleet and use the puddle.

Edited October 14, 2014 by ivlr3vil

[(PSN)Hiero_Glyph]

Hydroid is a solid CC frame.  That being said his CC abilities typically decrease the time-to-kill.  This means that when Hydroid is preventing the enemies from killing you, he is also preventing you from killing them.  The situations where a player does not need to worry about time-to-kill are usually limited to Interception and Mobile Defense missions.

 

For low level content, other frames kill faster.  For high level content, his skills disable but will not kill outright.  Ever tried killing an enemy being flailed around by Tentacle Swarm?  It's not fun.  Ever tried killing enemies gathered together in Undertow?  You better hope you have a ambush/trap waiting.  Tempest Barrage is alright but the knockdown effect also prevent quick headshots.

 

In the end, Hydroid just doesn't synergize that well.  Perhaps if using Saryn or other AoE damage abilities you could play to his strengths (and even then Vauban's Vortex or Loki's Radial Disarm + Decoy are more effective) but overall Hydroid is generally lacking when compared to other CC frames.

 

It is worth noting that Hydroid actually benefits from corrupted mods like Narrow Minded and Fleeting Expertise.  Narrow keeps Tentacle Swarm and Tempest Barrage more controlled due to reducing the radius, while Fleeting reduces the duration and energy cost allowing for more liberal ability usage.

Edited October 14, 2014 by (PS4)Hiero_Glyph

[d1sc1p1e]

i don't think i'll ever use him. the first time i saw him in play was in a squad going for 40 waves and the guy kept spamming Tentacle Swarm on the last few enemies of each wave and holding everything up. i dunno if he was trolling or just trying to help but the hate he got, man i do not wanna be the guy that mistakenly hits 4 in a Capture or something lol.

[Caliocerion]

Hydroid has a lot of uses that are not too apparent. He's great in dark sector conflicts because his tempest barrage basically shuts down the entire area and makes enemy players susceptible to melee and being shot. His tentacle swarm is adequate for defense missions and can damage phase 1 of lephantis regardless of weakness. Also the puddle skill can be a quick dodge since it cancels anything your doing and grants you toggle-able instant invulnerability. While he might not be able to keep up at super high tier defense and survival, he's a pretty fun frame to play. Plus Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones