A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

[Smackin]

A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

1. General Stuff
2. Statz n Skillz
3. Equipz
4. Mat'ing ur charged orber
5. Gameplay after Mat'ing
6. Tipz
7. Sample setupz

CTRL+F type in # to get the section

1. General Stuff

Sup, this is my first guide to a sorc which should work quite nicely as a starting char. I have never played this sorc so I cannot guarantee u absolute success with her.

Pros
Versatile
Durable

Cons
No 50k lightning
No 10k bliz
No 25k fireball

So why play this sorc?

U dont have to, I dont really care. This is just my $0.02 on a sorc that could survive and kill very well, once geared, of course.

Another thing to note, is that a good sense and focus during the questing stage is very important. When u quest with people to get through hell, alot of stuff drops. Picking up those stuff and saving the useful/valuable ones is how ur gonna acquire ur basic gear. If u aint gonna pick up that flawless gem/ral/tal/ort/sol/etc, uninstall D2.



2. Statz n Skillz

Str-Final 156 or higher, if u cant wait to put on spirit
Dex-0
Vit-50 to 150
Enrgy-Everything else

Skillz

Cold Tree
1 Ice bolt
1 Frost nova
1 Ice blast
1 Glacial spike
1 Blizzard
20 Frozen orb(max first)
1 Cold mastery

Fire Tree
1 Warmth

Lite Tree
1 Static field
1 Telek
1 Teleport
20 Charged bolt(3rd)
20 Lightning(next)
1 Chain lightning
20 Light mastery(4th)
Optional: 1 nova
Optional: 1 TS
Rest into telek(maxed last)

Justification: just do it



3. Equipz

There are 3 thing u must remember:
FCR is king
Dmg comes from skillz
Drink mana pots

Hence said, if ur gonna use rarez/magicz, look for +fcr +skillz +mana

Ima give a couple recommendations for each, ranging from ideal(rich) to suitable(poor)

Helm

Griffz-nuff said
Nightwingz-nuff said
Shako-nuff said
Tal mask-its part of the set, live with it
Lore cap-this thing is ******* godly, for the price
Peasent crown-peasents are poor

Armor

Enigma-nuff said
CoH-nuff said
Tals armor-nuff said
Vipermagi-******* godly, for the price
Stealth-GTFO of D2 if u still use this by the end of NM

Belt

Arachs-nuff said
Tals belt-its part of the set, live with it
Crafted caster belt-if u really need the fcr and cant afford arachs
Nightsmoke-Its aite
Lenymo-wearing this ensures GG

Gloves
Frostburns-huge +mana
magefist- used to maintain FCR

Boots
Travs-nuff said
Waterwalks-plus life is always good
Silksweave-plus mana is not bad
Tearhaunch-u aint a pally, but this **** is still good

Shield
Spirit-nuff said, look for 35fcr
Lidless-lower str req
Wall of eyeless-**** version of lidless, but still doable

Ammy
Tals-nuff said
Maras-nuff said
Any other magic/rare/crafted ammy with + sorc skills, fcr, mana, life, res. These ones can get extremely expensive, and they are extremely powerful, like 50x better than maras.

Ringz
SOJ-nuff said
10fcr/110+mana ring-I still like SOJ, but this guy could do.
110+mana ring-before u get ur SOJs

**** BK, BK sucks ******* *****. GTFO of D2 if u wear BK on a sorc.

Weapon
Hoto-Nuff said
Fathoms-nuff said
Tals orb-this is ******* godly with the set
Suicide Branch-Wearing this ensures GG
Wizzy-if u got +50 dex, go for it
Occy-lol
Any other **** with fcr and + skills

Switch weapon
Memory staff, look for one with +3 es basemod, though a regular one will do til u get a better one

Anni/Storch/GCs/SCs, no brainers



4. Mat'ing ur Charged Orber

Make ur char, join a game, quest ur way through act1 n 2. Pick up anything u think its worthwhile. Put 1 pts into pre reqs and 1pt wonders as they come, focus on charged bolt. Get rushed through act3 n 4, and remember to get WPs. Baal ur *** to 45. Get to NM, rush ur self through via teleport, or go with a party if u aint pro enough. Pick up worthwhile stuff. Baal to 72. Finish baal before u start baaling. Make ur own games, tele there, kill stuff, kill baal. This stage is crucial. This is the stage where u will get ur basic wealth from so pay attention to what drops. After that, hit hell, get rushed with a party, and baal to 85 atleast.

Again, I cant stress this enough. A huge part of what determines wether ur char will get rich fast is the amount of wealth u can acquire during the questing stage(if this is ur first char of course). If u can acquire all of ur basic gear by the time u finish hell, u are rdy to get the mf runz rollin, rather than runnin around begging for free ****.



5. Gameplay after Mat'ing

This girl can do everything except for mini ubers and ubers. If u dont have gear, dont bother with a merc. U'll go broke just from resurrecting him. For big act bosses, go up there, make sure ur ES is on, and static til half life. Run back and orb/lightning while avoiding attacks.

U can do moat trick with lightning, it'll take time.

I dont recommend andy, u'll just die, until u get good gear.

For regular homies, orb in the direction of the mob, then tele(if there are ranged monsters, as they will usually have launched their missiles by the time u threw ur orb) and cast lightning if theyre in a somewhat straight line or are scattered, otherwise charged bolt. Time ur **** right so that u tele just as the ranged monsters launch their attacks, so as to dodge them.

Once u have gg gear, just tele up to the boss, orb once to slow, static to 50%, orb another, and charged bolt to death. Make sure ur close so all the bolts hit.

Budget Merc Gear(always get act2 normal defensive or combat, defensive if ur gonna get infinity)

Tal helm
Duriel Shell
Insight Eth CV(This may not be super budget, but its godly)

GG Merc Gear(always get act2 normal defensive or combat, defensive if ur gonna get infinity)

Eth Infinty CA
Upped eth cham'ed shaft
Eth 10/30 ral'ed andy


6. Tipz

Maintain FCR while upgrading gear

Drink the ******* mana pots

Stop loading on the ******* mf

Time the ranged monsters attacks

Dont tank

Dont give ur merc half *** gear. Get him and give him the full thing or dont get him at all

Tele along walls when running meph

Bring antidotes

There are prolly more tips, but Im lazy.



7. Sample Setupz

Poor

Lore cap
Crap V magi
Suicide branch
Wall of eyeless
5fcr+ ammy(doesnt have to be +skills)
110+ mana ring x2 gambled
Frostburns
Nightsmoke
Silksweave

Switch memory staff

Medium
Full tals
magefist/frosburnz
35fcr spirit monarch
10fcr/110+mana ring x2/2x SOJ(either magefist with 2x SOJ or Frostburnz with 2x 10fcr/110+mana rings)
travs
Storch/anni+charms

Switch memory staff

Rich
P Griffz
Enigma
35fcr spirit monarch
2x SOJ
Arachs
Frostburnz
50mf Travs
P Hoto/P Fathom
2Sorc/10fcr+ ammy or maras or tals
Storch/Anni+GCs+charms

Switch memory staff

Thankyou for reading.

 

[-=Slaye]2=-]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

You'll have so little life and a poorly synergized energy shield, since you max it last. I don't even see you mentioning energy shield. Without it this sorc will surely die fast. I don't see how this variant on a cold/lightning sorc will work.

This won't work nice as a starting char either with only a single point into cold mastery. FO is a skill that doesn't do impressive damage in hell difficulty even with a higher level of CM. This skill layout will do pitiful FO damage in hell as backup skill for LI's.

And frankly you'll not have enough skillpoints to get a good primairy and decent backup skill with the skillpoints provided, if you have to resort to energy shield as well.

 

[ScottyDsntKnow]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

Not trying to be an *** but its obvious you've never played a sorc before. This is a very bad build and won't hold up in hell difficulty at all. No blocking, pitiful life, bad advice on the gear and there is no reason to max energy with a sorc ever. She gets more than enough from levels and items. Most people building very powerful hell running sorcs leave energy at base-75 and are totally fine.

Also a lightning sorc is not a good dual tree sorc because to get high enough damage to be viable you need to synergize everything. For multi tree, Fire/Ice duals are fine or Fire/Dual Dream lightning or Cold/Dual Dream lightning melee hybrids work too.

 

[fyrsten]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

I must agree with Scotty. This sorceress build seems pretty hopeless, unless you are only playing in normal difficulty.

You obviously intend for the sorceress to have energy shield in the memory staff on switch only, but you forgot to mention it.

And doezn't thiz forum have rulez regarding decent language. So much z's and slang wordz are annoying to read.

 

[DH Amazon]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

Not trying to be an *** but its obvious you've never played a sorc before. This is a very bad build and won't hold up in hell difficulty at all. No blocking, pitiful life, bad advice on the gear and there is no reason to max energy with a sorc ever. She gets more than enough from levels and items. Most people building very powerful hell running sorcs leave energy at base-75 and are totally fine.

Also a lightning sorc is not a good dual tree sorc because to get high enough damage to be viable you need to synergize everything. For multi tree, Fire/Ice duals are fine or Fire/Dual Dream lightning or Cold/Dual Dream lightning melee hybrids work too.

Its not that bad. Have you tried boltress? I has max damage in this build already, so orb as backup is best choice.

Skills are quite ok, I don't like telekinesis part, but rest were just ok.
That 150 vita was little low, but with good items it still gives over 1000 life.
And after 1000 life, only lag can kill you if you have absorb and good resist.

I build orb-lightning using Fathom/CM in last ladder, that 20 without synergies gives 700 orb, thats viable as backup. No reason to add synergies. Only couple lightning immunes in chaos/baalruns, so that 700 orb does job even in full games.

15K lightning and 700 charged bolt works nicely too (with CM)
No more synergies for charged bolt, so that is already maxed. So around lvl80 this sorc is done.

This build don't need infy, so good act2 merc with Reapers Tolls can tank full baalruns just fine.

IMO, full synergies are just overkill if you have good items.

 

[Smackin]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

You'll have so little life and a poorly synergized energy shield, since you max it last. I don't even see you mentioning energy shield. Without it this sorc will surely die fast. I don't see how this variant on a cold/lightning sorc will work.

This won't work nice as a starting char either with only a single point into cold mastery. FO is a skill that doesn't do impressive damage in hell difficulty even with a higher level of CM. This skill layout will do pitiful FO damage in hell as backup skill for LI's.

And frankly you'll not have enough skillpoints to get a good primairy and decent backup skill with the skillpoints provided, if you have to resort to energy shield as well.

Have u read my equip section? Do u know what a memory is? Ever heard of something called + skills? Do u know what prebuff is?

Not trying to be an *** but its obvious you've never played a sorc before. This is a very bad build and won't hold up in hell difficulty at all. No blocking, pitiful life, bad advice on the gear and there is no reason to max energy with a sorc ever. She gets more than enough from levels and items. Most people building very powerful hell running sorcs leave energy at base-75 and are totally fine.

Also a lightning sorc is not a good dual tree sorc because to get high enough damage to be viable you need to synergize everything. For multi tree, Fire/Ice duals are fine or Fire/Dual Dream lightning or Cold/Dual Dream lightning melee hybrids work too.

LOL? I've never played sorc? LOL? u kiddin me? LOL? have u ever heard of energy shield? U've never played a lite/cold hybrid so i wouldnt be talkin.

I must agree with Scotty. This sorceress build seems pretty hopeless, unless you are only playing in normal difficulty.

You obviously intend for the sorceress to have energy shield in the memory staff on switch only, but you forgot to mention it.

And doezn't thiz forum have rulez regarding decent language. So much z's and slang wordz are annoying to read.

WTF? Have u read the equipment section?



holy **** people, u can critique slaughter my guide all u want, but give me some ******* solid evidence first. Do u know why this build works? Have u ever tried this build before? HAVE U READ THE ******* gameplay and tips section? If u want a build that works naked, move ur ******* *** to the necro forum right now. With ADEQUATE focus and reflexes, u should have NO TROUBLE getting ATLEAST +6 skills by the time u hit hell. On ur switch with memory, u lose +2, but u get +6 energy shield, which makes it lvl10 with the rest of ur +4. THIS ISNT A ******* pure ES guide, which is why I suggested having 50-150 vit, depending on ur needs. BAD suggestions for equips? WOW man, LOL. Look at each of my sample setup, they all maintain the 105FCR BP, while maintaining a VERY good mana pool and a deecnt amount of +skills/res.

Do ur ******* research before tryin to sound like u know ****.

 

[Smackin]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

Its not that bad. Have you tried boltress? I has max damage in this build already, so orb as backup is best choice.

Skills are quite ok, I don't like telekinesis part, but rest were just ok.
That 150 vita was little low, but with good items it still gives over 1000 life.
And after 1000 life, only lag can kill you if you have absorb and good resist.

I build orb-lightning using Fathom/CM in last ladder, that 20 without synergies gives 700 orb, thats viable as backup. No reason to add synergies. Only couple lightning immunes in chaos/baalruns, so that 700 orb does job even in full games.

15K lightning and 700 charged bolt works nicely too (with CM)
No more synergies for charged bolt, so that is already maxed. So around lvl80 this sorc is done.

This build don't need infy, so good act2 merc with Reapers Tolls can tank full baalruns just fine.

IMO, full synergies are just overkill if you have good items.

Well yeh, U dont need the chain lightning afterwards, I just recommended it for people who wanted to beef up their lightning a bit. U can easily max out telek and dump the rest into energy shield for some serious tankage. As for the vit being too low, well I guess not everyone is capable of playing with 50 vit. Yes u dont need infinity to own(my lite/cold never had infinity, she rocked everything as fast as a hammerdin). Insight would work very well with this build, giving superb tankage. If u do bosses primarily, I would recommend defensive merc for the defiance(so he doesnt get hit too often and die). If u intend to run larger areas with many monsters, combat is the way to go(with all many monsters around u and the possible range attackers, the regen becomes necessary as u may not be able to dodge every missile.)

 

[-=Slaye]2=-]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

Have u read my equip section? Do u know what a memory is? Ever heard of something called + skills? Do u know what prebuff is?

Your build will fail without very good gear, period. Don't assume it to be nice as a starting char because it simply isn't. You haven't even tested this build yourself. Most people that write guides have played and tested their builds.

You'll have a very weak orb without lots of +skills. Lightning tree is ok. Large manapool, but what do you do last? Max telek. The synergie that makes energy shield tick. Your skill plan is flawed. If you can't handle constructive criticism then don't make a guide.

 

[melianor]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

Either this discussion remains civil on both sides, or this thread goes down a closed alley.

@Smackin - Build sounds interesting, but lacks some smoothing. The low TK will not be helpful, even when you have ES on switch with "Memory" staff. The mana drain will still be huge, though possibly playable. Otherwise i think this is a variant of the CL/FO sorceress, which can easily make do without any ES at all.

 

[CarloC]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

"I have never played this sorc so I cannot guarantee u absolute success with her."

Why are we reading this guide?

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

OK, I HAVE played this sorc. Through the entire game. Solo. And with crappy equipment... Those of you that are saying this build will never work are simply wrong; I've done it, and it worked just fine. If you think you need Infinity, Griffon's and a pack full of skillers to complete the game, then this isn't the build for you. Yes those items obviously help, but they aren't essentials.

As posted, this build can cruise along quite well in games with a smaller number of players. If you're patient, you can do ok in games with larger number of people, but your killspeed will be somewhat stunted without good/great equipment.


My complaints/opinions that differ from the guide itself are:

1. EnergyShield really sucks without spending at least ~30 points into it (in my opinion, EnergyShield completely sucks period). Since you don't have the 30 points to spend, I'd really skip that portion of the build and use your extra skillpoints to boost your cold damage (probably with the mastery).

2. 50-150 Vitality is too low. This is a sorc that wants to get in close to her enemies. I agree that it's often very nice to have the extra mana from points into Energy, but running out of mana isn't fatal, while running out of life is. And, as you said: drink some ******* mana potions. So I'd spend less than 100 in Energy, probably about 50 points on top of the 35 Energy a sorc starts with, then dump the rest into Vitality.

3. As I mentioned, this build likes to be up close to its enemies. For these types of build, my favourite 'cheap' merc is a Prayer mercenary with Insight equiped. ~60 hitpoints healed every ~second is kindof nice when you're occasionally getting whacked around, and a suitable polearm and the runes can be found by the time you leave Act1 Nightmare. For the really poor people, if you can't get good equipment for him, just focus on getting as much life leech as possible (crafted 'Blood' helm and armour are easy to make) to go with as hard-hitting of a weapon as you can find. Don't forget that Act2 mercs can use javelins in addition to spears and polearms.


One thing you definitely got right in the guide: FCR, +skills, and +mana.
Yep. Those are the three most desirable things for this build (along with resistances; more on that in a second). 63 FCR would be my minimum goal for a "poor" player, with 105 FCR preferred. After that, do everything you can to boost your skills and mana so you can keep spammed CB going as long as possible, and at as high of damage as possible.

However, like almost every build, don't neglect your resistances too much. Even if you disregard my opinion of EnergyShield and decide that'll solve your resistance problems... it won't with the ~10-15 points you have to spend in ES/TK. It won't even come close. You'll need some resistances. Focus on Fire and Lightning more than Cold and Poison if you're stretched.


Advantages of this build:
- go-anywhere / kill-anything
- absolutely fantastic at Countess runs
- CB is very strong against act bosses (again, you want to be standing close to your target)
- fairly solid as a MF'er (with good gear and in games with smaller numbers of players)

 

[-=Slaye]2=-]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

You played this sorc? I hope you're referring to a cold/light variant on this guide. One that doesn't use energy shield in this way and has more vit. Frankly I don't see you cruising through hell following this guide with crappy gear, no disrespect intended.

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

I mean Charged Bolt / Frozen Orb. No Energy Shield, and yes, with more vitality. I won't say it was an entirely easy journey, but progress was continuous and fast enough for my tastes. She never got bogged down in places like a single-tree sorc trying to fight (unbreakable) immunes would - and therefore was more enjoyable (for questing) than some powerhouse builds like my pure blizzard sorc.

 

[tomlol]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

best guide ever

 

[lumpor]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

Seriosuly, is there noone who's noticing that he isn't serious and just wants attention? You're all falling to it so easily.

Seriously, topic starter, you're breaking the rules. Trolling is't allowed. Guess you knew that already, since it's fairly obvious, but no need to annoy people just because you can

Sirpoopsalot, energy shield may suck on bilds that have no points to spare, like lightning sorcs, fire sorcs, or blizzard sorcs, but on enchantresses, it really shines. Since you've naurally maxed warmth, you won't have any mana problems. Then slap on lots of integer damage reduction and only mana burners will stop you.

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

For ES sorcs, poison damage is a pain in the butt too. Also, Open Wounds is very dangerous for the PvP crowd.

And I did try ES on one of my melee enchantresses (not full ES, but it was 20 TK and ~60% ES, with a 3:2 balance of Energy & Vit). I was completely underwhelmed with the "benefits" of ES, especially when manaburners are common enough (and dangerous enough) that you often can't even tank a bosspack of Skeletons in act1.

No other melee characters I've tried have gotten completely hosed throughout Hell by such a common boss mod, and that list of characters includes my other melee enchantress. If they fixed the manaburn bug, I suspect ES would be a *much* better skill, but until then I'll find other places for my skillpoints.

 

[lumpor]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

Manaburn bug?

Against non-mana burners, your warmth will negate the damage to your mana bulb, and with reduction, you take no damage to your health. How can that be underwhelming (I'm curious, since I've never used es myself, only heard from others)

 

[Smackin]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

Yeh, I was trollin for a bit, I apologize for that.

I havent played this build on bnet. I've tested it with sample setups in SP, and it works just fine. This isnt a variant of the CL/FO. Some of you may not like ES that is not fully synergized(eg. 20telek 20ES invested), in that case u can simply go full vit and ignore the rest. However, the point of this build, is so that u can have a very strong dual tree AND extremely high survivability at the same time. Pure builds like fire/cold/lite WILL not have the points spent in ES because they go for pure dmg. This build offers very high versatility, even more so than any other hybrid.

Lets have an example. Ur wearing full tals+2soj+35fcr spirit monarch+magefist+torch+anni+5GC(for the respective builds). 105FCR, +14 all skills, +16 all mastery(assuming 2/2/2 orb), +20 to fire skills. Ur lvl 90, with all skill quests completed, granting u 101 skill points in total.

If ur a meteorb, u'll have about ~13k FB, and ~500 orb dmg, assuming ur skills look like this(this is optimal FB dmg, not meteor dmg):
1tele
1telek
1 static
1 warmth
1 blaze
1 inferno
1 firewall
20 FB
20 firebolt
20 meteor
8 FM
1icebolt
1ice blast
1frost nova
1glacial
1bliz
1CM
20 FO

Now, with the exact same gear, but with CB/FO/ES variant, and those 5 fire GC into 5 lite GCs, at lvl 90, u'll have 620x24 CB, 13k lightning, ~500 orb, and 77% ES(with 9ES memory on switch for prebuff), ur skills will look like this:
1 warmth
1tele
16 telek
1 static
20 CB
20 Lightning
1 icebolt
1iceblast
1glacial
1bliz
1frost nova
20 orb
1 CM

U see, with the lite build, u have about the same dmg output with CB(24x620=15k, actually 2k more than FB), and u have the points to spent in a very strong survivability spell.

If poison is buggin u, simply chug down antidote.

No lumpor, I dont want attention, I'm simply making an already powerful hybrid sorc more known to the public.

@sirpoopsalot-I can see where ur comin from. Yes she does have to get somewhat closer to her enemies than the usually sniper FB build, but she doesnt have to be right next them(only act bosses where u want all ur bolts from CB to hit) so around 150 vit should suffice, although some people prefer more vit. Also, if u use full tals, the +life bonuses from the set will greatly enhance ur survivability with the low vit. I didnt really emphasize on res cuz ES from this build will eventually take 3/4 of ur dmg for u, but yes res is quite important for any non 95% ES builds. Ur right about combat mercenary combo with insight, that is very powerful, especially for this build.

@everyone else-trash my guide all u want, just gimme solid evidence.

 

[NagisaFurukawa]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

@poops: Prayer supposedly heals every 2 seconds, though it seems to be a lot faster.

@lumpor: He's referring to how Blizzard screwed up the Mana Burn calculations. Basically, you lose 200+ times as much mana as you should from Mana Burn, which explains why your blue bulb pretty much always gets emptied in 1 hit. Consider just how often bosspacks spawn with Mana Burn, and you'll figure out just how underwhelming ES really is. =D. Warmth isn't really enough regeneration either (at least not without 3000+ mana), especially if you have 95% ES.

@Smackin: It's a decent build for very rich players once you take into account sirpoopsalot's comments. Also, Memory is a decent switch, but CTA would be much, MUCH more useful, especially for an ES build.

 

[aquaman]

Re: A Guide(somewhat) to The Charged Orber

Meh. Pick any kind of skill tree variant you want, throw enough godly gear on the sorc & merc and it's still going to be a solid build. OP, if I may offer a suggestion - next time you write a guide try not to insult your readers all throughout the post.