Can I save my character build? If not, what's a good lightning/cold build?

[stillfantasy]

Can I save my character build? If not, what's a good lightning/cold build?

Hi

I'll say this right now...I am a total and utter noob at this game. I just started playing a few days ago.
Not sure if it makes a difference but I'm playing expansion with patch v1.12. I'm also playing single player mode.

As with every game I've played, my first character is always an experimental one (i.e. I choose to do whatever sounds good at the time). Then I find a build I like and create a new character. Except, I've grown rather fond of my current one and all her gold and items :whistling:

Her stats are:
Level 7
Str: 15
Dex: 29
Vitality: 20
Energy: 46

Skills:
1 Frozen Armour
1 Ice Bolt
1 Ice Blast
1 Frost Nova
1 Charged Bolt
2 Warmth

Is there any way I can fix this character build? To be either cold or cold/lightning.

If not, what would be a good cold/lightning build? With cold being the primary. Also, what stats should I put my stat points into for a Sorceress?


Thanks :grin:

P.S. How do you know which items you should sell and which you should keep? ...need....more....inventory...space....

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Can I save my character build? If not, what's a good lightning/cold build?

you're in luck ...


Level7 isn't really that high of a progress point, so you still have lots of time to make this a really solid build. For the most part, your skills at this time are really only prerequisites for some of your final abilities.

Two very solid options for a single-player cold/lightning sorc are ChainLightning/FrozenOrb (CL/FO), which uses Lightning and Chain Lightning, as well as Frozen Orb. Another good choice would be ChargedBolt/FrozenOrb (CB/FO), and that build is more true to its name, focusing on ChargedBolt primarily out of the lightning tree. There are build guides for both in the 'Knowledge Library', I think.

FYI, it's a little difficult to make Cold your primary with either of these builds, because you really do need to spend at least 60 points into your lightning skills in order to make them strong enough for end-game. Since most sorcs finish the game somewhere around level 85, that only leaves ~35 skillpoints to build your cold attack. Fortunately, FrozenOrb is a very strong skill, and you can do pretty decent with 20 points in it and a few into your Cold Mastery... still, if you want to complete the game you'll need to discipline yourself not to skimp on your lightning skills. You'll pretty much NEED 20 in Lightning and Lightning Mastery, and 20 into whichever of the other skill you focus on (CB or CL).


For stats, I'd only spend a few in Energy. Probably 70 total at the end of the game (maximum. In this case, less is more). Those points will help you cast spells and keep your mana up early on, but they'll be a detriment later when you get into harder levels. After Energy, I'd probably stop with ~90 in strength. That's enough to equip almost all of the "good" caster gear that you might find. Then the rest into Vitality. Vitality = life, and more is always better.

Some folks, and build guides, will recommend getting max-block with your shield. I don't like this idea in your case, because when you're just starting out you probably have no idea what shield you'll actually be using. It's easy to pick the wrong shield, then stick too many points in Dexterity trying to compensate for it, and end up stuck with not enough life later in the game. If you do decide to pursue max-block, do not spend more than 200-220 points in Dexterity at level85 - if you do, you won't have enough points in Vitality to have high enough life for late-game.


As for items, primarily at this time your equipment should focus on three things. Mana, Faster Cast Rate, and Skills. Pick equipment that increases each of those. As you progress through the game, other things become more important, but those 3 will always help you. Later on, start looking at things that increase your life and resistances (particularly your fire & lightning resistances, but don't neglect cold and poison completely).

Mana, Faster Cast Rate, and Skills, followed by Life and Resistances. Those are really the most important things.

...need....more....inventory...space...

This is why I said you were in luck. Swing by the single player forum. Near the top is a thread titled "Mods/Utilities/<whatever>". Inside that thread is ATMA and GoMule... two fantastic muling applications for single player characters. These allow you to save whatever, and however much, you want of the items you find.


There are also a ton of great resources scattered throughout all of the forums of this site. Have a look through some of the 'stickied' threads in each forum.

 

[MizzouVic]

Re: Can I save my character build? If not, what's a good lightning/cold build?

I just wanted to say welcome to Diablo and if you have a half decent internet speed, I wanted to suggest playing online with us on Bnet~! it is lots of fun, and you actually get to try out different builds more, mainly because the items would be easier to obtain and leveling is much quicker.

 

[stillfantasy]

Re: Can I save my character build? If not, what's a good lightning/cold build?

Thanks for the warm welcome and all the info

I always thought mods were a little less than "legal" but I guess that's only for multiplayer. I sold quite a few staffs that provided skills >.< Thanks for that, I've got GoMule to use now ^.^

Thank goodness my character isn't too messed up. I think I'll go for either a CL/FO or a Meteorb build. The Meteorb does sound rather good. I found a pretty good guide on the Meteorb but I still can't find a build guide for CL/FO.

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Can I save my character build? If not, what's a good lightning/cold build?

It really depends on the "mod" to whether it's "legal" or not. ATMA and GoMule aren't really mods though - they're applications to assist single-player characters to store and transfer items. This could still be done with multiplayer TCP/IP games, but for those of us that choose to play solo, it's a lot easier with these apps. But neither application will alter your gameplay (beyond giving you access to the items you've found with other characters).

The rules and FAQ's for the various forums typically explain what's allowed for "mods", and if you find something unclear or omitted, please send a private message to a forum moderator before installing any "mod".



But the real purpose of this post is... CL/FO sorc guide: http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=562

 

[Robobaby]

Re: Can I save my character build? If not, what's a good lightning/cold build?

Two very solid options for a single-player cold/lightning sorc are ChainLightning/FrozenOrb (CL/FO), which uses Lightning and Chain Lightning, as well as Frozen Orb. Another good choice would be ChargedBolt/FrozenOrb (CB/FO), and that build is more true to its name, focusing on ChargedBolt primarily out of the lightning tree. There are build guides for both in the 'Knowledge Library', I think.

FYI, it's a little difficult to make Cold your primary with either of these builds, because you really do need to spend at least 60 points into your lightning skills in order to make them strong enough for end-game. Since most sorcs finish the game somewhere around level 85, that only leaves ~35 skillpoints to build your cold attack. Fortunately, FrozenOrb is a very strong skill, and you can do pretty decent with 20 points in it and a few into your Cold Mastery... still, if you want to complete the game you'll need to discipline yourself not to skimp on your lightning skills. You'll pretty much NEED 20 in Lightning and Lightning Mastery, and 20 into whichever of the other skill you focus on (CB or CL).

To do real damage with the Lightning tree you need to spend alot more than 60 skill points. You need 20 in:

Lightning Mastery
Chain Lightning
Lightning
Charged Bolt

at the very minimum and you ideally you want to max out Nova too for the synergy with Lightning.

At level 91 with +11 to all skills and all of the above skills maxed except for Nova (17 points) I have 17k lightning damage range and 7.4k chain lightning damage range (before negative resists and damage enhancements from things like Eschutas). An storch would put that up to 22k for Lightning if I had one.

Without the synergy from Charged Bolt and Nova and all other variables the same (including +11 to all skills) you will be doing 7.7k max lightning damage and 4k max chain lightning damage.

I don't know. I started with a Meteorb, rolled a Chainorb and now I'm playing a straight Light sorc and I could never rationalise what I feel are fundamental flaws in the design of Chainorb.

Meteorb sacrifices alot by losing its firebolt synergy. With +11 to all skills you will lose about half your fireball damage (8.5 to 9.5k goes down to about 4.5 to 5.5k) and a sizeable chunk of your meteor damage (17 to 18k down to about 11 to 12k) simply by taking 20 points out of Firebolt. However, fire immunity is much more common than lightning immunity in Hell making this more of a necessary sacrifice.

Chainorb likewise suffers mercilessly from dumping CB/nova synergy in favour of frozen orb. Once again you lose about half your damage from lightning and chain lightning but hell immunity to lightning is much less common and nearly all of them are breakable with Infinity's conviction aura (if or when you can afford it). I also know for a fact that an act 2 holy freeze merc can solo 99% of those immunes with a little help from you using a wand with +1 or more to Glacial Spike.

I am now at the stage where I can confidently Hell rush as a Light sorc without dying and contrary to popular belief lightning immunes are never an insurmountable problem. All they do is slow you down whilst your merc goes to town. He can do this cheaply too and I consider this slow down to be a very fair trade compared to how quickly you can dispatch everything else.

Meteorb is by far the easiest to play untwinked. Light sorc is by far the fastest killer on Hell against non immunes. Against immunes the speed with which Emilio puts baddies down depends on how well you deck him out but I generally found Light sorc plays much faster in general.

It is easier to play Meteorb without encountering mana problems. It is difficult to get the balance right with Light sorc and if you are min/maxing for a highly optimal end game build you may find yourself practically Insight dependant for the entire game and highly dependant on +mana, x% more mana items and +skills with the best of them being Sojs and Shakos. Not exactly cheap gear then. CL/FO shares all of the same problems as Light Sorc but is even less viable with a similar degree of twinkage.

I'd play Meteorb if I was going untwinked. Id play straight Light sorc twinked, no contest. I just wouldn't play CL/FO. My CL/FO made it to the end of hell and levelled for a bit up to 89 where I packed it in and retired it as a mule before transferring all the gear over to my current Light sorc. It was just so pedestrian by comparison.

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Can I save my character build? If not, what's a good lightning/cold build?

I've completed the game with ~60 points in lightning several times. It's not that hard, just a little slower than it could be. But when you're starting out, you have to start somewhere... 20 points in 4 different lightning skills and +11 skills is obviously nice, but it's NOT necessary to get through the game.

 

[Robobaby]

Re: Can I save my character build? If not, what's a good lightning/cold build?

Oh I agree. I finished the game with a CL/FO doing 4k CL damage in Hell. It certainly wasn't fun, it was a damn sight harder than it needed to be and it took a damn sight longer than it should have but I guess it was satisfying to beat Hell with a bit of a lame duck.

I'm assuming most people won't want to put themselves through that sort of thing.

The issue here really is this:- how hard do you want to make it on yourself? You are effectively cutting your nuts off by not maxing charged bolt and nova synergies. Then taking a cold skill that has no synergy that matters and whose only real purpose is to kill immunes which your merc can do decently anyway.

At the end of the day its your character and you can put say 20 points in thunderstorm if you want. Or 20 points in firewall. And you will probably be able to beat hell with it if not alone then with a bit of help.

But why would you put yourself through the pain of having to do that? :\

 

[Nullvoid]

Re: Can I save my character build? If not, what's a good lightning/cold build?

I've got a 3.3k CL on my sorc and the only areas she genuinely struggles in are the chaos sanctuary due to having to tippy-toe to keep her merc alive, and the worldstone keep thanks to those gloams/souls and her having poor resists still. None of the other areas are particularly hard to clear so I'm not sure why you're making it out to be a complete disaster if you don't fully synergize your lightning skills (I've only done 20L, 20CL, 20LM for what it's worth, the rest has gone into frozen orb and now cold mastery).

 

[Robobaby]

Re: Can I save my character build? If not, what's a good lightning/cold build?

You should try it solo with a 35k light sorc sometime. Its pretty awesome.

Besides, I just find character building one of the fun parts of dii. Having a set of rules and boundaries to work in and then trying to crunch the best numbers out of what you have.

I'm just saying Light sorc does everything CL/FO does and better if you want to save yourself the hassle.

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Can I save my character build? If not, what's a good lightning/cold build?

I've got a 3.3k CL on my sorc and the only areas she genuinely struggles in are the chaos sanctuary due to having to tippy-toe to keep her merc alive, and the worldstone keep thanks to those gloams/souls and her having poor resists still. None of the other areas are particularly hard to clear so I'm not sure why you're making it out to be a complete disaster if you don't fully synergize your lightning skills (I've only done 20L, 20CL, 20LM for what it's worth, the rest has gone into frozen orb and now cold mastery).

This has been my experience as well. A little patience (not a lot) was all that was really necessary.

I think it's a matter of different standards though - if you're quite used to playing a fully-synergized, fully-twinked, mostly-optimized, single-tree sorc, then you'll find CL/FO to be underpowered. My first build was an untwinked WW Polebarb, so when my second build came along (CL/FW sorc), I found it a breeze in comparison.