Best secondary skill for blizzard sorc (PvM)?

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jhokie

Diabloii.Net Member
Best secondary skill for blizzard sorc (PvM)?

I've perused the threads here, and I still havent come to a definite conlusion, so I'd like some more input. My sorc is primarily PvM, with Blizzard as the main attack. I'm definitely going to max Blizzard, Ice blast, alot into cold mastery, and possibly some in another Blizzard synergy.
I have probably decided to go 0 dext, and pump Vit.

I'm going to use this character to rush others, to MF, and I want to be able to solo fairly easily in hell. My question is, what would be the best secondary skill to learn for immunes in terms of skill points efficiency? At this point I'm leaning towards Firewall or fireball. How many points should I have to put into either of these, and the masteries, in order to do adequate damage in hell?

My equipment will be as follows:

Ptopazed Shako
Tals Armor
Tals amulet
Tals Belt
Oculus
Probably Sanctuary (may use other shield)
War Travs
Nagel Rings (soj or raven frost if need be)
Frostburns (or chance guards)? Open to glove suggestions.

Am I going to have problems because of lack of FCR??

I'm thinking I want to be able to take my sorc in a pvp game and be decent, but that probably wont happen with this equipment, and with the points invested in the fire tree. I'm wondering how much I will need ot give up in my cold tree in order to be servicable with my fire skill of choice in case of immunes, and what fire skill I should choose, and how many points allotted to it. I'm also open to any equipment suggestions. Thanks for any responses.
 
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Liliel

Diabloii.Net Member
Hmm... If you're after skill point efficiency I'd be tempted to say Firewall. Maxed FW and say 11-20 into FM should be enough, I think, to provide significant damage. It will take some practice to use it though. I'll be using a similar build for my main sorceress (though I still haven't decided between GS and IBlast).

Using Fireball and Meteor, you'll have more flexibility in your attacks, but skill points will be tight and you'll probably be more reliant on +skill gear to raise masteries. If you're going the Fireball route, be sure to check out the thread by Miladys-Knight ('My Blizzard-Fireball sorc build guide') for lots of discussion on that.

As for equipment... perhaps a Magefist for the glove? Adds to your fire, mana regen, and I think puts you over a FCR breakpoint (unless you're already over it... I'm not very good at remembering equipment stats, especially sets).
 
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GenXCub

Diabloii.Net Member
I had a Blizzard/Hydra sorc last season that was great. Instead of ice blast, I pumped Glacial Spike since GS works great with Hydra. Immobilizing groups while hydra takes them down (unless they're cold or fire immune). Ice Blast is probably fine though.

The only weakness I had was that neither blizzard nor hydra is a "direct-fire" spell, so if I was facing something cold immune, I just had to place hydras and run around, or if something was fire immune, I had to place blizzards and run around. I couldn't just stand up and fire something at them.

I agree with Lil, don't use frost burns. Blizzard is a timered spell, so unless you're spamming something expensive like nova, I don't think you'll need frostburns.

Also, if you get a few MF small charms, I'd recommend swapping out The Oculus and Harlequin Crest and get the complete Tal Rasha's Set. The extra damage is FAR better, but you're giving up 100 MF in the process (which is why you should do it only if you already have a lot of MF, and 100% won't affect you much).
 
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jhokie

Diabloii.Net Member
Thanks for the tips... but a question. How exactly does the complete set give me more damage? Shako and Oculus = +5 all skills together... and i get the extra life and mana, DR, and MF.

The complete set gives me a bonus +3 all skills, 65 resist all, and some other bonuses. It is nice no doubt, but my resists should be fine in hell anyway. So how do I get more damage from the +3 all skills over the +5 all skills of Shako and Oculus?
 
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ZygFryD

Diabloii.Net Member
I always go 1-5 slvl to Static Field. It is just amazing. 8 of them take the 90% of the enemy's life and 3 of them take 57% of it. Baal falls really fast with that.
 
Dennis_KoreanGuy

Dennis_KoreanGuy

Diabloii.Net Member
Best hell rusher sorc I think would be Meteorb sorc w/ a good merc and FO as her main skill.

I've never made split skill tree blizz sorc, so I wouldn't know if they are good or bad, but if you didn't make your char yet, try going FO/FB. I've a meteorb but found FB to be highly more effective than meteor in almost every situations. FO's REALLY great in PvM, easy to use, and fun too. :yep:

- Dennis
 
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jhokie

Diabloii.Net Member
I think I'm going to go with Blizzard, since I already had a forb sorc in the past (couple years ago), and I want to try Blizzard. I've loaded her up with the tal rashas full set and shako and occy, so I can try the various combos and see how they compare. And Wiz Spike / lidless weapon switch for teleing.

I'll post how viable the Blizzard fball/fwall (still undecided) build is in hell once I get there. Should be tonight or tomorrow.
 
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darzog

Diabloii.Net Member
I would agree with Dennis on Meteorb build (whether you use FBall or Meteor more the build is the same). When you go dual-tree you end up with one tree having 1 skill + 1 synergy + mastery the other tree having 1 skill + mastery. So you get a partially synergized spell and one solo spell. FO is the best spell for a sorc without synergies. A FBall or Meteor or even Firewall isn't as good (in my opinion) without synergies. Going meteorb you get a partially synergized FBall, Meteor and Solo FO. This is the best dual-tree option that I've found so far.

__________________
Darzog
 
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jhokie

Diabloii.Net Member
Very good points Darzog. So you think Blizzard with only 1 synergy and mastery will be largely ineffective in Hell? I was kinda looking forward to Blizzard, but I can always do FO if It means the difference between an effective and ineffective character. The fire skill + 1 mastery was kinda just a backup in case of immunities... but if yall think I could get a much better character by going with Forb + mastery and fire skill + mastery + synergy I will do that.
 
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jhokie

Diabloii.Net Member
Also, what of the viability of going Fireskill maxed + fire mastery 1 point and then Blizzard + CM maxxed + 1 synergy maxed + whatever's left in the other synergy?

Will a firewall + 1 point in Mast (of course +skills will add) do enough damage in a couple person game to take on cold immunes?
 
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darzog

Diabloii.Net Member
There are several permeutations that will work, including a Blizzballer (Blizzard and FBall as main skills) that people use. My experience has been that if you try to split two trees in half, but trees are slightly too low. I think it is much more effective to keep the two tree lopsided with one tree primary and the second tree secondary.

Keeping that in mind, let's look at potential secondaries (let's assume a maximum of 30 points to spend):

Fire: Hydra and Firewall are the only fire spells even worth considering because FBall and Meteor need at least a full synergy plus some FM to be effective in Hell. Hydra and Firewall are doable but are not stellar without synergies.

Lightning: Almost all lightning skills need at least 1-2 synergies to be effective in hell. Exceptions can be made for ES/Telekenesis but that's not a damage spell, so I'm not really considering it. An ES build is completely different.

Cold: Blizzard needs 1-2 full synergies to realize its full potential. It will still work with limited support, but it doesn't even come close to its maximum capability. FO, with oly support from CM is almost fully realized. The synergy from Ice Bolt at 2% is one of the weakest synergies so FO all by itself is almost fully built. In my opinion, this is the best spell for maximum damage for minimal skill points.

Plus, by limiting your secondary attack to 30 skill points, you primary attack gets that many more synergy points. A fully built Meteorb has max Fireball, Max Meteor, Max Fire Mastery, Max Frozen Orb and -100% Cold mastery. This gives you a potent (if not ultra-powered) attack from both trees. Instead of just having a backup that you only use when you face an immune, a fuly build Meteorb uses FO + FBall at all times. I throw a FO, then throw 2 FBalls waiting for the timer, then another FO. At least that's what I do and I find it very effective. The only time I only use one attack is on immunes. Plus my merc (A2 HF) does great with a Reapers (with a 38ED/3-5 cold dam jewel), Upgraded Shaftstop and Andy's. I'm thinking about getting him a different helm so he doesn't have -30 fire res but I haven't decided what yet.

_________________
Darzog
 
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Liliel

Diabloii.Net Member
Heya, I don't think you should be discouraged with using Blizzard. With maxed Blizzard and Ice Blast, each Blizzard shard will hit for maybe 1.5k or more damage each, and most monsters get hit multiple times (especially the larger ones). And between delays you can be tossing out 1k damage Ice Blasts. Oh and this is without Cold Mastery.

As for Firewall... if you can get the enemy to hold nice and still for 3.6 seconds, I think it does about 4.5k, with no mastery. 1FM and it goes over 6k. This is of course if you can get them to eat the full duration, which may not be easy. Ice Blast can help a bit there. But against cold immunes, you'll need to rely on a merc to hold them still (or yourself if you're feeling lucky), or some favourable terrain... or you could try FWing and then teleporting to the edge of the FW so the enemy has to walk lengthways through the wall to get to you.
 
BattleQueen

BattleQueen

Diabloii.Net Member
ZygFryD said:
I always go 1-5 slvl to Static Field. It is just amazing. 8 of them take the 90% of the enemy's life and 3 of them take 57% of it. Baal falls really fast with that.
Click to expand...
Fyi, Static Field is capped at 33% n Nm & 50% in Hell. It's worth 1 pt imho. With + skills, it's up to a pretty decent range.
 
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