HC ES Sorc -- Vita or Energy?

[dreamofwinter]

HC ES Sorc -- Vita or Energy?

My HC blizzard sorc is midway through nightmare, and I'm building her to have a full telekinesis energy shield. She's not a magic finder, she's going for lvl 99, so suffice to say that she has a lot of baal running ahead of her. Do you guys have any thoughts on how should I split my remaining stat points between vita and energy?

I'm finding that in HC, if you're careful, the deaths come from unusual combinations of bad luck; a lot of these, you can only learn from experience (ouch), but I'm hoping to get some input on some veteran HC players who have seen it all. Will I be safer with vita or energy in the long run?

 

[AgentMarth]

I did vitality on my ES/Orber sorc, then tried to get 50+ mana gc's to make my mana higher or +%mana gear. She has ~950 life and ~750 mana. If I ever get a hold of a CtA, that will get higher of course.

The thing with mostly energy, is one thing, Mana Burn. If your ES collapses, you will have to depend on your life to make it while you recast ES. There are a lot of souls when Baal running, and they drain mana fast, and having higher life after a collapse can mean the difference between getting away or deeds.

Thats what I did, it works great, but you could put some in energy if you got some really nice lifer charms.

Whats you end game/ Baal running gear look like? That may help a bit with advice.

And you're actually going for 99? All I can say is good luck, and I hope you got a good group of friends to Baal with.

 

[McCain123]

If you want to level your sorc to 99, the first thing you need is, some friends to play with for quite a long and boring time. 2-3 month of 5 hours Baaling a day is something not everyone can stand. Don´t join public runs, otherwise you will die to TPPK.

Some things you should take care of ...
- Never tele without Battle Orders. Extra life and mana makes your e-shield sorc a lot tougher. Other chars only take advantage of the extra life, you take advantage of both.
- Stack your resistancies. Aim for 65% poison and 145% for the rest. You will meet monsters that curse lower res and have a conviction aura, so don´t let them cripple your res or you will die.
- Have some damage reduction and maybe even max block. Apart from that a lot of life and mana will save you from mods like amp, fana, might, extra fast, extra strong.

Good luck trying. :thumbsup:

 

[PhatTrumpet]

Check out Brave_Turtle's guide in the Sorc Forum. He hit 99 with an ES/Lightning Sorc on HC, but I'm sure the same concept could be applied to a Blizzard Sorc (particularly the part about ES and life/mana ratio).

 

[dreamofwinter]

Nice-- I found brave_turtle's guide to be good and applicable to all kinds of hardcore ES sorcs, not just lightning. For those who are curious, I've linked it below:

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=546071

He recommends 1500 life with BO, which basically comes out to splitting vita/energy 50/50. Vita is for the manaburn mobs, ES is for the phys damage / cursed / conviction / lower resists mobs. I'm thinking I will go with slightly more vita than mana, to get 2000 life with BO, and the rest in energy. Thanks for wishing me luck!