Hardcore Meteorb: Block or Vitality?

[Hornedtoad]

Hardcore Meteorb: Block or Vitality?

Hi,

Looking for some opinions on a hardcore meteorb sorc who will hopefully eventually wear Tal's set. Would you go max vitality with Spirit or max block with another shield (Moser's/Stormsheild/etc)?

Spirit just has so much nice Sorceress abilities going for it, but in Hardcore blocking is also very very helpful, especially against archers...

Primarily going to use the Sorc for Meph/Countess runs and rushing NM/Hell.... And I really like teleing to bypass stuff so that's where block really comes in handy.

Thoughts?

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Hardcore Meteorb: Block or Vitality?

I'm a fan of Vitality myself, but the archers on Countess runs can be very nasty, so in this case I'd probably go with block.


If you don't need resistances, an upgraded Visceratuant is a good option... good requirements and block, as well as the +1 skills. Moser's is a great shield for resists obviously. Whistan's is, of course, the best blocking shield, but doesn't have much else going for it. Sanctuary's another very good choice.

I'm not a fan of Stormshield on max-block sorcs, since you're stuck with a lot of points in strength and dexterity, leaving you quite low life (and because of your low life and sorcs' very slow hit recovery, you'll want/need a good bit of FHR). I've tried it a couple of times, and didn't like how much of my lifebulb would get taken off every time a hit snuck past my shield, or the staggeringly slow hit recovery because of that damage.

 

[Smackin]

Re: Hardcore Meteorb: Block or Vitality?

Spirit with max vit, I have never ever died on SC with meteorb or CL/FO with spirit and max vit. Without spirit u will NOT be able to hit the 105 FCR with tals. FCR>EVERYTHING. The faster u can gtfo of there, and least chance u'll get hit. FCR is how sorcs survive, not blocking. U aint a pally, leave the blockin to tanks.

Whats even worse, is bliz fixed the block lock. If u block while tele with crappy FBR, and a whole load of missiles come at u very fast, u'll end up blockin once, stoppin ur tele in the process and get hit a whole load of times afterwards. Those hits will trigger FHR like mad, making u even more vulnerable.

 

[MYK]

Re: Hardcore Meteorb: Block or Vitality?

Spirit with max vit, I have never ever died on SC with meteorb or CL/FO with spirit and max vit. Without spirit u will NOT be able to hit the 105 FCR with tals. FCR>EVERYTHING. The faster u can gtfo of there, and least chance u'll get hit. FCR is how sorcs survive, not blocking. U aint a pally, leave the blockin to tanks.

Whats even worse, is bliz fixed the block lock. If u block while tele with crappy FBR, and a whole load of missiles come at u very fast, u'll end up blockin once, stoppin ur tele in the process and get hit a whole load of times afterwards. Those hits will trigger FHR like mad, making u even more vulnerable.

Hehe. You can't get 105% FCR with max block with Tal's Set. The idea isn't to toss out the shield, it's to toss the set. ^ ^ I've got no problem teleporting with 63%FCR and max block, and that's how I used my Tal Rasha sets.


Funny enough, you made my favorite argument against Spirit in your second paragraph. :scratchchin:

 

[Hornedtoad]

Re: Hardcore Meteorb: Block or Vitality?

I think he was saying 105% FCR with spirit and tal set... not max block and still use spirit.

Well so far I've gotten 1 good argument for block and one against... It's just hard to look at all the good stuff spirit has and not use it, but archers and blind teleing can be dangerous without max block...I'm tempted to stick with spirit and see if I can just tele/dodge the archers shots and not need to block them...But in the past i've always done max block with a sorc.

Keep the opinions coming pls.

 

[Smackin]

Re: Hardcore Meteorb: Block or Vitality?

Well yeh, everyone prefers different stuff. Some like the safety of max block. What was the ur argument anyway? The FHR triggering?

 

[xxsteelxx]

Re: Hardcore Meteorb: Block or Vitality?

For hc max block is normaly prefered. pumping vit on a sorc is bad return for ur points...pump dex for block, use a good blocking sheild like whistans so u dont have to pump much then pump vit.

 

[ColtFourFive]

Re: Hardcore Meteorb: Block or Vitality?

max block > max vit.

you don't exactly get superhaxwin 4000 life by pumping vitality. in fact, sorcs have the worst vitality-to-life gain of all of the characters. max block/resists will save you a lot more than that extra 200 life.

ps: search for this using the search function. I'm certain that this question has been asked several times before.

 

[Sansfear]

Re: Hardcore Meteorb: Block or Vitality?

I've always sworn by max block, but one monster in particular has made me reconsider.

Undead soul killers and their exploding kin.

 

[AgentMarth]

Re: Hardcore Meteorb: Block or Vitality?

I've always sworn by max block, but one monster in particular has made me reconsider.

Undead soul killers and their exploding kin.

Well that doesn't make sense, seeing as how with max block you have a 75% chance to block their death explosion therefor a higher chance of saving your own skin.

If you plan on rushing, Baaling, or in other ways having more then one character in your game you will benefit more from block IMO in the long run. Hell, even solo too IMO.

Max Vita is no good unless you have a source of BO. That bit extra life going from maybe 800 to 1000 ain't gonna matter when instead of (theoretically) blocking one of those two 550 hits (Fana, ES, Might, etc), vs taking both and deeding. If you however double that from 1000 to 2000 instead of the 1600, that's when it can start to make a difference.

IMO, you can maybe forgo MB if you use ES, but even then its not worth the safety. This is HC, one slip up and deeds.