Blizzard Sorceress Problems

[TheDemonWithin]

Blizzard Sorceress Problems

Here's the thing: my first character I made was a Blizzard sorce. I was pumped. Everything just died under Blizzard. I heard about Meph. Ran him a lot in Nm. Then I went into Hell. And tried Meph. It wasn't pretty.

Almost every run I would run into a problem and either have to Full Rejuv if I had picked one up, or just hope for a lucky tele and/or the red pots to heal fast enough. That was NOT fun, and just getting a single kill of Meph required about 3 runs. That wasn't pretty. Now, I know I did some wrong stuff, but now I'm wondering how to fix that.

Here's what I imaging this new one is gonna be:

20 Blizzard
20 Ice Blast
20 Glacial Spike
20 Ice Bolt
1 other prereq
1 Teleport
1 Telekinesis
1 Warmth
1 Static Field
Rest Cold Mastery

The plan is to max main skills in the order listed, and get a few into Cold Mastery when hitting 30 to get some -resistance when entering Nm and Hell. Equipment will be as follows:

Shako
Occy / Wizzy for Tele to Meph
Stormshield / Lidless for Tele to Meph
Vipermagi or Tals Armor *not sure, prolly Viper for the FCR*
Tal Ammy
Raven\Dwarf / 2 FCR rings for tele to Meph
Silkweaves
Frostburns / Magefists for Tele to Meph

With that setup, I'm going for 140 FCR if I can get to "of the Magus"s or 120 if I can get get "of the Apprentice"s. Thats for the Tele. Then for the actual killing, I'll have +8 to skills.

Now the stat points is where I have the el major problemo. I know I would need at least 125 str for a Hel'd Stormshield, but then Resists might not work out so well if I couldn't Pdia or Um it...so I might just go for the full 156 or so.

So for str I'll probably go for 156, and I'm quite sure the setup of equip doesn't give any +to attributes unless I'm soooo lucky and snag a Anni (lol, like I'll ever kill the evil clone).

For dex, I'm thinking that no block would be needed: if I get hit by Stygians, I'll get block-locked or killed anyway. I'll just get enough for Wizzy.

Now, energy and vit are the real problem. I know that if I dont have enough vit, then I'm gonna die in one hit to Stygians. But if I have too much Vit and 0 itno energy, then Teleporting will be a real chore because I'll have to keep sucking blues. So...whats a good balance to keep for a Blizz Sorce?

Keep in mind, this Sorce will NOT be using Frostburns for the tele, she wants to hit the 115 fcr breakpoint or wherever that is.

Also, keep in mind that this Sorce is ONLY for Meph, she will just run him until he feels that reviving himself next game is not worth it.


One final thing:

Anyone know how mcuh a Death's Fathom goes for, runewise on USWest Ladder? I'll take that Q to the Trade Values forum too, but I just thought I might ask here as well, seeing that Death's Fathom is a sorce weapon.

 

[Stormcryer]

I take it you want the truth and not a comfortable lie so here goes.

There is really no need to max out FCR. Blizzard is time delayed, so you only really need + FCR for teleporting. I'm running my archmage at about 85% FCR and I can tele with little to no fear of stun lock.

Secondly, SS is not neccesary for max block if you're playing on the ladder. Upgrade a vicser and you'll get max block at lvl 90 with only 203 in dex and the strenght requirement is only 77. (Much cheaper than SS in most ways and just as effective (IMHO) Um it or pDiamond for added res.You might want to go as high as 107 str to use a ryhmed trolls nest for weap switch on MF runs.

The gear you're choosing may get you a higher MF rating, but you loose out in a few areas. + skills, extra res, FCR, and the obvious of having to devote a large amount to str and not get your vita or energy up.

Check out the complete stats for the Tal set. With a gheeds charm, ptopazed tal armor, tal amy, and mask (mine's umed for + res) a decent set of chancies, twin nagels, I get 340%MF plus still get the bonus of using the ful tal set (masive + in skills, life, mana, FCR, res to move to my target and whittle him down. Then a quick weap switch to the ali (2 x ist) and rhyme, net me an additional 200 % MF (numbers are rounded) for the final kill at a little over 500% MF.

BTW the rings only give you 60% mf. If mana burn is a problem, siwtch them out for 2 SOJ. 50% man regen, and added mana bous + 2 skills...very nice....

BTW Full tal set has - req of 80% added bonus.

When I run Meph, he goes down in a bout 15 sec, and I am able to tank him pretty well with the assistance of amy meat shield merc (defiance)

My equip set up, (does include an anni, but that's just gravy) nets me 75 res for light/fire/cold/w 65 res for poison. ( a +14 and +13 res all GC are also in the mix)

Your skills are not a problem, but your ability to tank, and move (tp) might be something to reconsider.

This all boils down to the old question that you need to ask yourself. Do you want to max out MF, and be sucking on purple bottles, ot tone down teh MF rating in favor of a better, faster and safer run. By the decsription that you laid out, 3 runs to kill meph once, I can do 3 complete runs wioth a kill and shopping. while I don;t get the max MF rating that you would, I can make it up in more runs, and less hassle.

Cheers!

Storm

 

[mathil]

your gear looks like you wil have plenty of +mana/skills (for warmth) so you won't need much in the way of energy. if you really want to drop some in, no more than 50. don't worry about the low vit, a SS will give you res and DR, so you will be fine. (maybe even block if you so choose.)

fcr: the important breakpoints are 63 and 105. getting 140 is wasted.

cold mastery: get cold mastery to lvl 17 (after skills) before you start pumping up synergies. at lvl 17, cm does -100% res which for monsters with 0 res, is the max it will do. for hell meph runs, you will want a slvl 32 cm (-175 res, he has 75 cr). for blizzard sorcs, cold mastery is more important than synergies.

oh, and if you are going to do that many mf runs, it might be worth it to do pit runs or mausoleum runs.

 

[TheDemonWithin]

Storm: I did check out the entire Tal Set, and I do realize I have tried using it before, but I always found myself with too low FCR, not even hitting the 63% breakpoint, because Tals itself gives only I think 30 fcr. That leaves me struggling to get at least the 63% bp with rings (if I can get 2 of the maguses...), gloves (magefists could help, but then mana would hurt, and no, this is ladder, i cant afford an soj =o), and boots (can rare boots spawn with fcr on them?)

Tal set seems very nice, but until I can figure a way to work around the fcr problem of it, then I dont think I can use it for running.

What you say of an up'd visc seems very good, but upgrading runes could take a little while to get. But then again, max blocking might hurt more than help if I get blocklocked due to thise crazyfast stygians...=X.

I'll definitely think on that.



Mathil: Maybe I might just go for the SS, and insert some -15% req jewel into it to save me a bit of str. I've tried an SS before, and I must admit, it rocks. But then that also means that I'd have to take it off my other character, and I was hoping not to have to completely strip my other character to make this one. But then again, if it comes down to it, I might just have to anyway.




I think I might just try to reach the 103% FCR BP in order to tele to meph faster...hmm


I need some more input on these questions:

Should a Blizzard sorce be maxing out blocking and/or using an SS?

Is Tals Set worth using over the usual Occy / Shako / Viper setup?

Does the -80% reqs make the other items I wear need that much less, or only the item that states "-x% to requirements"?



Thx in advance!

 

[mathil]

the - req only effects the dex and str req of the item its on.

i would use occy/shako/viper over tals. more of just about everything.

the fcr breakpoints are 63 and 105. you only need the 63 even for teleing to meph.

rare boots can't get fcr on them. i didn't think there set or uniques with fcr iether.

if you go occy+up'd visc, you shouldn't worry about the blocking. occy's teleport will save you. that is if it needs to, if you get locked, walk away, don't teleport, you will live.

 

[Hyey]

with lidless and wiz spike +shako and your other plus skill items, you should easily have enough mana to teleport throughout the entire durance 2 (i can with that setup and i have somwhere around 850 mana with like 20 into energy.) I dont use SOJS either and a wear perf chancies so its not that difficult to get where you want to go with tele (and yes tals should be easily able to get you the 63% you need to stay alive as the partial bonus on like 3 parts of the set are somewhere around 20% FCR if i remember correctly.)

 

[kuza]

you might want to wear the wizzspike/Bladbuckle/Rockstopper combo for your tele to meph. Then switch to your alt weapon alibab or gull/Rhyme, and put on your goldwrap and shako. You'll have great +defense vs missles and faster hit recovery, and wiht the wiz+lidless you'll have the FCR.

 

[Stormcryer]

I have been running with the Full Tal set (questing) and partial tal set (3 items) for MF runs in hell and have not had any problem nor have I noticed a significant reduction in tele speed.

Here's the item set up that I am using.

To move around to get to meph, I run with;
the full tal set
Umed Mask (yes a bit of a mistake should have put it in the armor instead as it would giveme 10%more res), but I wanted the + res)
ptopaz in the armor For better result I'll probably switch the locations of the um and pTopaz when I get another um later.
Upgraded Viscer (pdiamond)
Magefirst
War travs
2 x soj

For weap 2 switch
occy (will eb replaced with dual ist ali later)
rhymed trolls nest

2 critical charms I never remove are a gheeds, and anni

FCR is over the 63% breakpoint and with max block, I can tele with little or no fear of getting stun locked, or killed while moving arround. (dont; actually tele through Dur 2 see below)

Once I enter Durance 3, I switch out(from held in cube)
magefist for perfect chancies
2 x soj for 2 high nagels
tal belt for goldwrap
FCR does now go below teh 63% breakpoint but at this point I really don't care as I'm in tnak mode with my defiance merc doing most of the tanking, and boosting my def to 7900

I switch to weap 2 to have occy pick up the lost + skills and added MF. In a matter of seconds I've gone from a really strong and safe questing/tank build to a more enhanced MF/tank build. MF runs at 365% and will increase to 500% once I finish teh overall build and I no longer need the +3 skills of the occy and replace it with the dual ist ali.

Meph goes down in about 10 to 15 seconds

Considering that I'm already outside of the "MF cookie cutter" build (a fully tested and successful Questing/MF tri-elementalist (yup the ArchMage returns) I'm fine with a few minor modifications to the run of the mill play style.

BTW, with an area level of 85, teleporting around Durance 2 just to make a quick kill on Meph while statstically will get more items, can be costly. My first soj came from a dual immune (fire/cold) unique blood lord on level 2. My near perfect nagels both came from similar finds in level 2 durance, I no longer teleport around uniques in this level. I'll stop club the hell out of them (no pun intended) and do a little shopping.

If I remember right, the uniques in Durance 2 have the same capability of dropping items as do the uniques in "pit runs" (which is actually higher than Meph himself), and with an Archmage build, I can tank and kill them just as easy thus adding to my overall chances of finding better items. Why only do one capped char kill for itesm when you can usually get about 6 or 7 kills woth no cap, and then the last capped kill.

Just my way of MFing.

BTW to date (only two months of intermittent MF runs (Meph and pits) the Items I have found and used or traded so far.
2 soj.
2 x tals armor
2 x lidless
2 Lidelss eyes
1 reaper
1 Hoz
1 SS
3 x mage fist
1 war travs
1 leviathan
1 crown of thieves
1 golwrap
1 perfect chancies
2 near perfect nagels
and tonne of mid level junk

Before you all say the Arhmage is not viable,think again. She soloed hell with no problems worth mentioning, and only one death from start to finish (normasl to end of hell), runs the pit with full MF gear with no issues, runs Durance with reduced MF but full battle gear, smokes the Coutess and Andy no problems, is a goddess in NM for Any runs.

I haven't done may Baal runs as she's only lvl 82 and want to get her up to at lease a 93 before MF runing Baal, but even if she can't run baal at the end of it all, she works all other lvl 85 areas so I'd say viable.


Cheers

Storm

 

[necro1975]

I'm curious as to what the Archmage is?

 

[Stormcryer]

Archmage = tri-elementalist

A sorceress who develops abilities in all three trees.

Mine's a Blizz/CL/Meteor

Storm

 

[i am war]

Re: Blizzard Sorceress Problems

what i wear is fine for general mfing on a blizzard sorc:

head-perf shako/ptopaz
amu-tals
weap-40 all resi hoto
sheild-perf fcr spirit
switch-cta+spirit
rings-2x10%fcr + resi rings
gloves-trangs
boots-perf war travelers
invent is upto you.. i have 5 cold skillers,perf torch,anni and 7%mf small charms.. yeh i dont have a single spare slot but i only pick up good loot so i bank the skillers for space..

also merc uses : eth stone with 3,000 defense, insight c.v and eth andys with 40%ed+other mod jewell...


theres my 2 cents ;p

 

[Noite Escura]

Re: Blizzard Sorceress Problems

Storm: I did check out the entire Tal Set, and I do realize I have tried using it before, but I always found myself with too low FCR, not even hitting the 63% breakpoint, because Tals itself gives only I think 30 fcr. That leaves me struggling to get at least the 63% bp with rings (if I can get 2 of the maguses...), gloves (magefists could help, but then mana would hurt, and no, this is ladder, i cant afford an soj =o), and boots (can rare boots spawn with fcr on them?)

Tals give you 50 FCR. Take Trangs or Mfists and you're set up for the 63 breakpoint. 105 is a bit trickier though...

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Blizzard Sorceress Problems

Holy thread resurrection, Batman!

I think 4 full years is a new record!!! :grin: