An idea for a new build

[Jippesaw]

An idea for a new build

Hi all,

I was thinking of a build.... but I cant try it out. I lost my CD. :'( In fact i havent play 1.10 yet

Anyway, i decide to put this idea (or rather more of a 3/4 idea since I dont know how to make it more complete) forward so U guys out here can improve on it.

Some introduction
This sorc almost dont need to use mana. The main spells are blaze, and Thunderstorm. For most of the time, she will be running around, and letting those chasers be wear down by the spells.

Skills
main build
20 blaze
20 FM
20 thunderstorm
20 LM
Ok now what's next?
(rest to enchant*
1-5 Frost nova* )

As for stats, ( haven't decide.. depends on how the build is being tweaked.)

She will be mainly using a bow. If she is not chased, she can use the bow to disturb the enemies( mainly archers). Will be stocking up on fire and lightning charms for more damage. Chance to hit is also important. Shouldn't worry too much on resists. Life leech is a bonus but not absoultely necessary. Ah yes. she should be able to run fast.

Options to consider
*Pts in enchant is mainly to increase the chance to hit of the chac.(of course grateful for the damage increase as well.)
*frost nova~~ bleh(spoils the theme of the build). This is used in case of emergency situations or when there is not enough room for running. I dont know whether this is useful??? someone can guide me on this??

some other questions
1. Is the killing rate for this build too slow? Btw, i hope this build isnt item dependent.
2. Is it better to use a melee weapon?(or a throwing one)
(the choice here determine my stats)
3. of course which merc?(i was thinking of might)
4. if i decide to tweak the build towards enchant, anddecide to allocate only 10 pts in enchant and 10 pts in FM, will it still be viable?
5. Yes... help me think of a good name for this build.

6. Anything else i might have missed out???

Jippesaw

 

[prion]

many times monsters will concentrate on your merc. they won't come after u so Blaze will be much more dificult to use. my $.02

 

[Jippesaw]

hmmm... if that's the case

2 options

1. no merc
2. more pts into enchant, less into FM. (more shooting than running)

hmmm i don't like it either way.. hope someone can offer a good third option.

 

[melianor]

With this kind of skills you might be able to make it through NM, but certainly not Hell. Both spells dont pack enough damage to make your killing worthwhile.
I dont need too good killnig speed with my builds, but the time it would take to kill with these skills and no merc would be agonizing.

Might be fun for a while in Normal and Nightmare.
You could add Frozen Orb with that build, but i guess you will be seeing yourself use FO all the time since its alot more powerful comparedto the other skills.

You can go without Merc, but you'd better have damn good Teleporting skills then

 

[Liliel]

Hmm... unfortunately, I think you may find that the damage over time for Blaze and Thunderstorm is so low that it can have a hard time overcoming monsters' regeneration rate in Hell. I believe that in Hell difficulty you might find every single battle is a battle for your life.

In short I wouldn't recommend a build using Blaze at all. Nor would I recommend depending on Thunderstorm to kill things.

But hey, you can try it if you want. You'll earn a coveted title of 'True Diablo II Masochist' for your efforts.

 

[Jippesaw]

Correct me if i am wrong,
but blaze should be able to deal out a reasonable amt of damage considering the fact that the enemy is constantly in the fire.

Yes the damage may look meagre in hell, but considering the fact that every instant the enemy is standing/chasing in the fire until they fall. In the meanwhile some of the chasers are zapped by thunderstorm.

As for Fire immunes, was planning to stocked up on lightning charms. (since i have 20 in LM anyway). Of course Thunderstorm takes ages to trim mobs of fire immunes so the bow comes handy here.

I Think a merc is A MUST. hard to deal with fire immunes in tight situations. However i believe if i choose to run, the merc will follow instead of engaging the mob. Of course my context of run is equivalent to moving 1 screen away or more. The merc shld either be a might merc or a barb... depending on my bow damage...If my damage is pitiful, no pt adding might on top of it.

Sorry for trying hard to justify my build here.... maybe it's realli too weak...
but i juz hope it won't get thrown out of the window.

One positive side with this build though.....Duriel is a piece of cake...and even the ancients arnt that hard as b4. The strategy is just dont get hit.

 

[Stormcryer]

There's no need to apologize for defending a build that you feel strongly about.

As to it's viability, well the only real way to adress this question is to build it and work it.

I once heard of a fellow who was told that his particular build wasn't viable, (he still hears it from time to time), now there are many different variants on it, and it is being used by quite a few players.

Now to address your build.

First off I think it should definately get points for originality. At least I've never heard of such a proposed build. Now to the hateful reality of the situation.....
Blaze may not
have the umph to get the job done in hell mode. Also, TS. while packing a bit of a punch, is too random (IMO) to be a primary skill, but hell, I've been proven wrong before.....many times....

I cant even begin to fathom the EQ that you would need to pull of this build, and as to a merc, well my defiance merc is sometimes too slow to move off a fight unless I tele him away. You may encounter this problem as well....or you may not.

I would give ths build, based on paper calc only, a tripple F rating. (Funky, Fun, but most likely Failure in hell.

Anyway. the best thing to do is to build it and see if it works.

Cheers!

Storm

 

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

If you have not played during 1.10 as of yet...how can you back up your findings for this build?

Also...with blaze and thunderstorm as your main skills your not going to be doing alot of damage compared to the other fire skills... and thunderstorm isn't as good as it was in 1.09...and most people put only 1 point into it for that reason.

Though it's a orginal idea you have come up with...I will give you credit for that.

If you ever do get to play in 1.10...I'd like to know how it's working for your build idea.

HoS

 

[3xbd]

With

20 Blaze
20 Fire Mastery
20 T-Storm
20 Lightning Mastery

10 Fire Skillers
+12 All Skills

Blaze (42) Damage: 4456-4534 Damage per Second
T-Storm (1706-2223 Damage per hit)

In hell, Baal will take about 8 full minutes in your blaze burn to die.

Sounds like a fun challenge build

 

[Jippesaw]

Thanks for all the inputs..

Just a few more questions.(can't helped it, i am too ignorant and greedy)

1. Does blaze do more damage if you run over the same piece of ground more than once? (if this is true, then i think there may be some hope)

2. When u all were mentioning about damage and killing rate, is it based on player 1?

3. I have mentioned about using the bow with lightning charms but there has been no comments on that? Is this source of damage also too puny to get recognized?

Once more... Thanks a million....

Jippesaw

 

[LorveN]

In hell, Baal will take about 8 full minutes in your blaze burn to die.
Sounds like a fun challenge build

sounds pretty impossible to me. remember that baal regenerates, has resists, strikes back, and worst of all, he doesnt run after you! he is very stationary, and most of the times he moves, he will teleport. This means, killing bosses like duriel and andariel would be piece of a cake compared to baal, but still, gl hf killing one of them :xmad:
however, running around through areas might be fun to do, still im not prepared to do it :xsmile4:

 

[Jippesaw]

I have to agree on this point. I think with blaze, it will be very hard to hit baal. Even mesphisto may pose some problem.

but of course the build is not juz abt blaze and thunderstorm.

The sorc uses a BOW. late in the game, skill pts could be invested in Enchant to aid the damage.
So mainly i see the sorc shooting at baal as a possible scenario. Blaze only comes helpful if baal decide to wait in the fire. Thunderstorm is only for some cheap shots. But then again... the question to answer is whether she can get there in the first place.

 

[melianor]

Enchant only with masteries will not be enough especially NOT with a bow. In 1.10 the damage of Enchant used with a bow is not the damage displayed in your skil tab. It's about 1/3 rd of the damage.

If you stack Blaze upon itself the damage will get more indeed, but not all monster will follow you into that trail of fire. Some are at least half sentient

Some bosses do follow you around, some dont. Getting Baal into that trail will be hard. Just look at the hitpoints and the damage figures.

Baal Hell HP: 493701
Also in Nightmare and Hell he has 50% fire resistance, meaning your damage will be halved. So you even stacked Blaze will hardly do damage, not even talking about Thunderstorm. You might be able to do damage with your bow, but it will also be very low.

I realize that you really want to do this build and seriously i am only giving advice based on experience and simple calculations, nothing else. It is by far not my intention to discourage you, though some of the facts speak against success.

Again i would say that til the end of Nightmare you will be able to do fine with this build, further on from there it will be hard, but possibly still playable with alot of patience.

 

[Miladys-Knight]

What you are trying to do is build a fire and forget sorc for the spells.

This means you will use very little mana so a point in energy shield will utilize this unused resource pool.

Frost nova will chill and slow the enemies and there are no prequsites to it but will do little else for you. I would treat it as a one point wonder or maybe not even spend the point on it if you wear a hit power item(s) that will trigger it when you get hit.

Static field will be a must on this build. The more range the better since you will be shieldless. Your chance to hit with your bow will be very low there are a few things that you could do about this....

1. Get a blessed aim merc
2. Use a weapon that gives you a great deal of extra AR such as a Faith RW Bow. This will give you both increased AR and ignores taget defense it also gives you the fanat aura helping both you and your merc.
3. get an item that gives you lots of enchant to use as a prebuff (demon limb comes to mind)

Lastly you will need a weapon that gives you prevent monster heal. Edge RW bow on switch may do the trick for you here.

The build sound fun but very challenging. You will have trouble in hell diff but I think it could be doable if you don't mind taking a lot of time to make the kills.

 

[Liliel]

Alright.. after a bit of testing, if you stick to 1 player games you might just get away with Blaze. Maybe. At the very least you'll be able to kill Andariel. The blaze flames can stack too. You'd probably need to rely on both your blaze and the bow to kill enemies... Maybe activate blaze and go toward the enemy, fire the bow, retreat a bit along the fire path (to stack the flames), fire the bow again, retreat some more etc. You'll probably be using a Demon Machine too, maybe with the Razortail belt for added piercing.

The problem, I think, is the combination of Blaze and Thunderstorm. You may be trying to make a fire and forget sorc, but... the problem is Blaze requires your enemy to follow you in a straight line, and your bow will be doing mainly fire damage. It's pretty difficult for any non-amazon to get enough physical damage on a bow to matter, so it's mainly your enchant and exploding arrow that will do the hurting. So against fire immunes, of which there are many in Hell, you're stuck with Thunderstorm and your merc. Imagine a large pack of Pit Lords surrounding your merc, and all you can do is run around and look on in dismay as your thunderstorm refuses to hit the same monster twice (how does that saying about lightning go? lol), let alone enough times to actually kill anything. Or imagine an Oblivion Knight pack, where the OK makes your merc go pop, your thunderstorm still refuses to kill anything and the OK refuses to follow you into a Blaze while the fire immune DKs loom ever closer with their swords held high.

I recommend you switch Thunderstorm out for something else. Personally, I think you'd go well with 30pts to get max FO and 5 in CM. It's sort've like a fire and forget spell... you fire it and it will hit almost everything on the screen for you no matter where you aim. But it's also got some control in it so you can target specific enemies etc. And it will be better at handling bosses. If you wanted your sorc to be 'different', I believe the use of Blaze already qualifies you for that. The remaining 14 points would go into Enchant and Warmth (synergy for enchant). Also, don't bother with Frost Nova... or at the very least don't put more than a point in it. And remember to put a lot of your stat points into dex. This increases your AR (and I think bow damage... it does for an amazon anyway).

 

[Dennis_KoreanGuy]

With this kind of skills you might be able to make it through NM, but certainly not Hell. Both spells dont pack enough damage to make your killing worthwhile.
I dont need too good killnig speed with my builds, but the time it would take to kill with these skills and no merc would be agonizing.

Might be fun for a while in Normal and Nightmare.
You could add Frozen Orb with that build, but i guess you will be seeing yourself use FO all the time since its alot more powerful comparedto the other skills.

You can go without Merc, but you'd better have damn good Teleporting skills then

Word. Said everything that was needed to be said. :xfrosty:

- Dennis

 

[Uzziah]

With

20 Blaze
20 Fire Mastery
20 T-Storm
20 Lightning Mastery

10 Fire Skillers
+12 All Skills

Blaze (42) Damage: 4456-4534 Damage per Second
T-Storm (1706-2223 Damage per hit)

In hell, Baal will take about 8 full minutes in your blaze burn to die.

Sounds like a fun challenge build

8 minutes to beat Baal that not bad. I spent 45 minutes to beat normal Baal with my passive Barb. A neat Baal trick cast slvl 16 clay golem (stone armor, clvl 49 with str req 77 dusk shroud 1500+ def) and have a HF merc with Kelpies socketed with an Amn stand back and watch your merc and golem kill him without your help. :xsmile:

@melianor for ranged enchantress damage take LCS damage subtract other damage sources (weapon, charms, etc) and divide by your current fire mastery percent +1 . The other way is to take enchants listed damage and multiply by fire mastery. IE you have 200% fire mastery and your damage reads 9000 after you take out other damages, so you take 9000/(1+2.00) = 3000 = enchant * fire mastery.

With points in fire mastery, blaze, TS, and lightning mastery, I would say put points in warmth and use an item to get enchant slvl 22 from demonlimb or ctc enchant from lavagout. Warmth, and firemastery will synergy with enchant enough to gain an amount of damage from enchant. As for frostnova your not going to have enough points to use it as a kill skill so it will be for just crowd control, frost nova walk them in circles over your blaze.

I think you'll be fine with Blaze even in multi player games players 4-8, you'll be slow but you can still kill. By the way Blaze sorcs are great for Duriel runs.

@Liliel the more points you have in thunderstorm the more often it will go off, it sucks when your getting lightning immunes in the area since TS will hit them repeatedly while your fighting a fire immune.