Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

[Rhiana]

Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

So, after becoming rather disappointed with my Blizzard sorc (she's great at nightmare anything, but fails at most Act3 and on areas in Hell) I decided to make a dual element sorc, so I can at least have a reliable backup spell for when I hit mobs immune to Lightning (my main element)

For the point distribution, I was thinking:

20 Charged Bold
20 Lightning
20 Chain Lightning
1 Static Field
1 Telekinesis
1 Teleport
20 Frozen Orb (+5 pts from the prereqs)
1 Warmth
1 Lightning Mastery (along with all spare points)

Total: 90 points. With the points from the skill quests (Akara, Radament and Tyrael), it can be finished by level 78, unless I made a mistake somewhere, which is likely.

Now, to what I need help with. Order of maxing stuff. At what point should I have Frozen Orb do decent damage? Lightning Immunes don't show up until ActIV / Act V Nightmare, iirc, and by that time I should be level 60-ish. Should I start working on Frozen Orb after killing NM Diablo? Or earlier than that? I don't want to have to scrub another character because of immune problems.

At one point I will hopefully get an Infinity, but I can't count on that, as I'm rather free with stuff I don't use/need so I don't think I'll afford one in a hurry. So don't suggest I get one I'm aware that it exists, and I'll be using my Blizzard sorc to try to get one, it'll just take me a loooong time.

As far as attributes go, I'll go for enough str for Spirit, with the rest in Vit. It works very well for my Blizzard sorc, so I see no reason to change it.

Gear suggestions are welcome too.

Thanks in advance.

Oh, and I won't be MFing much with her, just killing stuff. It's why I hate all the cold immunes. I like killing stuff, not getting to a specific monster, dropping it and repeating that over and over.

 

[Crane]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

Right now, I'm wading my way through hell with a very similar build. All the 1 pointers, and now I have:
20 Frozen orb
5 Cold Mastery
20 Lightning Mastery
20 Chain Lightning
13 lightning
1 point static/teleport/warmth

I maxed orb as soon as I could, but if I were doing this again, I would probably get it to about 10 with a point in cold mastery then start trading between lightning and maxing frozen orb. My lightning was a really weak attack for a while, but frozen orb could just blow everything out of the water. I got through it by killing NMbaal until chain lightning actually did something.

I would rather have only one point in cold mastery than the 5 that I did put in. So far (act 3 hell), frozen orb is quite effective and I think that I didn't really need to spend those other 4 points in it, especially since a sorc should be running around with more than +5 skills.

Why max the synergies and not lightning mastery? I would recommend dropping charged bolt (or lightning) and maxing lightning mastery because it will net you a higher damage.

I would go without charged bolt, even though this makes the early levels terrible, because once you get it, chain lightning is just too much better. Yeah, if you stand close and spam it, it could be good, but I just sweetspot orb for bosses so I don't get owned if my merc dies.

 

[Rhiana]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

Yeah, the thought occured to me, and I'll probably drop the spare points in Charged Bolt, after maxing Lightning Mastery.

So I should get Frozen Orb to about ten as soon as possible, then add a point every other level... that works.

Thanks ^_^

 

[Painman]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

Well.. there's a reason why the Meteorb is the preferred VersaSorc for the Poor Man and not the Chainorb.

Lit variants need +skills and mana reserves. In other words: wealth.

If you got little to no wealth, just suck it up and make a Meteorb and/or a Hammerdin. This is no time to get fancy; it's time to make profit.

BTW, what was wrong with your Blizz Sorc? Her purpose is to kill Hell Meph, and not much else. It seems as though you were expecting more of her. Don't.

 

[Nullvoid]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

I've basically done a carbon copy of what Crane just suggested and am having great success on hell difficulty (although I can't run baal with any great speed due to not having high enough resists). I'd always done FO+fireball before so this has been quite an interesting change and I definitely feel like my sorc's killing power has gone up (chain lightning is awesome!). Skills have been laid out as follows:

Cold
1 point in all three cold armours, shiver being the one used.
20 points in Frozen Orb
All remaining points into Cold Mastery once the lightning skills are maxed.

Fire
1 point in Warmth.

Lightning
1 point in CB, Static, Nova, Telekinesis and Teleport.
20 in Lightning.
20 in Chain Lightning.
20 in Lightning Mastery.

An obvious omission is Energy Shield but I don't feel that has caused too great a weakness in the character since she currently has 1.1k life.

With a total of +7 skills from all my items I get the following stats for my spells (at level 87):

Frozen Orb - 369 to 388 damage.
Cold Mastery - minus 70%.
Lightning - 4 to 5763 damage.
Chain Lightning - 4 to 3352 damage, 10 hits.

The items used currently are:

Helm - Shako, unsocketed.
Amulet - Saracen's chance.
Armour - Vipermagi 31, unsocketed.
Ring 1 - Nature's Peace (Nihlathak runs are great now ^^)
Ring 2 - Dwarf Star (not great but the fire absorb and magic reduce help my survivability a bit).
Gloves - Chance Guards.
Belt - Tal's Belt.
Boots - War Traveller's.
Weapon Switch 1 - Spirit Broad Sword and Spirit Monarch.
Weapon Switch 2 - Gull Dagger and Rhyme Ancient Shield.
Inventory Charms - Only a Gheed's.

Oh and I've chosen a Holy Freeze merc with the following gear:

Helm - Tal's Mask, unsocketed.
Armour - Duriel's Shell, unsocketed, not upped.
Weapon - Insight in an Eth CV with 17 medi. :thumbsup:

On a typical MF run with her I'll cruise through andy and mephi; make a keyrun visit to the countess, summoner and nihlathak; work my way through the various alvl 84/85 spots in each act; and even tackle diablo/baal runs, although both are a bit too slow to clear for my liking.

For skill progression I did take FO to level 10 as soon as I could, I then maxed Chain Lightning and Lightning Mastery before returing to max FO. After that it's just been a case of bringing Lightning up to full power and now I'm just dropping an extra point into Cold Mastery on the rare occasions where I finally ding another level (I doubt I'll get much past level 90 so that would be a base level of 7 for it).

One thing is guaranteed though, you'll enjoy playing the character!

 

[Rhiana]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

@Painman: I'm not much into farming or repetitive tasks. When I play D2, I like clearing all the areas, discovering all the map, opening all chests/barrels/crates/urns, etc. My blizz sorc fails at killing Cold Immunes, and there are like 10947rhworh12983yrdh23041471904910dw2034df2hd82e0 of them in Hell -.- I HATE it. xD I know I can teleport past them easily, but that just makes me feel like I cheated.

And if I don't enjoy what I'm doing, why play?

I do have some nice gear on my blizz sorc, and I'll just give it to the new one as soon as she reaches the requirements.

@Nullvoid: Thank you for the info Helps a lot

 

[Karky]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

this thread was just what I needed. I really want to make a lightning sorc, but I hate going single element because of immunes. Thanks to all who contributed to it

Forzen orb is a mystery to me, with the low damage but yet I hear it is quite effective, even in hell. I get there are several shards and all that and I heard something about aiming it so the orb "explodes" inside monsters.

 

[Nullvoid]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

Yea Karky, when you cast it the orb travels so far and then explodes in a shower of bolts. If you can get that explosion to occur 'inside' your target monster then in effect every single bolt makes a hit and the damage suddenly skyrockets. It makes it a very effective skill for killing bosses and other single targets but it can be rather weak when you're getting mobbed by swarms of monsters. Although I do find it good for crowd control (cast one into the mob, teleport backwards and then let rip with your lightning spells).

 

[Afitch]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

Frozen Orb is one of the very few sorc skills that can stand alone without any synergies and still be relatively effective. However, Frozen Orb has a timer delay when cast so you can't spam Frozen orb like you do with Lightning skills (hence the need for A LOT of fcr so you can spam your lightning skills).

The stronger build than what was suggested (I use this build) is a
20 FO
1 CM
5 prereqs

20 CB
20CL
20Lightning
20 LM
1 tele
1 static
1 prereq

1 warmth

FO just doesn't have the synergies that make it scale well as does lightning. It is still effective but you notice its stopping power is well short in 8 player hell games. Lightning needs a lot of synergies to be effective since there is such a huge range in minimum to max damage. The fact that you can literally shoot lightning bolts left and right where as you can't do that with orb makes lightning the better investment with most of your points if you are going to already spend 60+ skill points there and it is your main way of dealing damage.

As your gear improves you should be able to reach that sweet spot of -100% with just 1 in CM. I'd only invest in CM and go -175% if I was heavy frost or using a lot of frost equipment (death's fathom, etc.) and then invest in CM but since your main focus is doing damage and you chose lightning as either your duel element with ice or to focus on light with ORB as backup. CM deserves 1 point.

Since you are not taking energy shield be sure to get a good shield, with how fast you can burn mana with lightning skill use you'd be crazy to use it.

P.S. Do not waste points getting the ice armors find a weapon with + skill for shiver/frozen whatever u prefer cast it and then switch back. Diablo 2 is too much of a min/max game you have to utilize every point given.

 

[Afitch]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

Frozen Orb is one of the very few sorc skills that can stand alone without any synergies and still be relatively effective. However, Frozen Orb has a timer delay when cast so you can't spam Frozen orb like you do with Lightning skills (hence the need for A LOT of fcr so you can spam your lightning skills).

The stronger build than what was suggested (I use this build) is a
20 FO
1 CM
5 prereqs

20 CB
20CL
20Lightning
20 LM
1 tele
1 static
1 prereq

1 warmth

FO just doesn't have the synergies that make it scale well as does lightning. It is still effective but you notice its stopping power is well short in 8 player hell games. Lightning needs a lot of synergies to be effective since there is such a huge range in minimum to max damage. The fact that you can literally shoot lightning bolts left and right where as you can't do that with orb makes lightning the better investment with most of your points if you are going to already spend 60+ skill points there and it is your main way of dealing damage.

As your gear improves you should be able to reach that sweet spot of -100% with just 1 in CM. I'd only invest in CM and go -175% if I was heavy frost or using a lot of frost equipment (death's fathom, etc.) and then invest in CM but since your main focus is doing damage and you chose lightning as either your duel element with ice or to focus on light with ORB as backup. CM deserves 1 point.

Since you are not taking energy shield be sure to get a good shield, with how fast you can burn mana with lightning skill use you'd be crazy to use it.

P.S. Do not waste points getting the ice armors find a weapon with + skill for shiver/frozen whatever u prefer cast it and then switch back. Diablo 2 is too much of a min/max game you have to utilize every point given.

 

[Painman]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

@Painman: I'm not much into farming or repetitive tasks. When I play D2, I like clearing all the areas, discovering all the map, opening all chests/barrels/crates/urns, etc. My blizz sorc fails at killing Cold Immunes, and there are like 10947rhworh12983yrdh23041471904910dw2034df2hd82e0 of them in Hell -.- I HATE it. xD I know I can teleport past them easily, but that just makes me feel like I cheated.

And if I don't enjoy what I'm doing, why play?

Actually I agree with you 100% there - I'm kind of a methodical area clearer and basket kicker myself.

I've made multiple Meteorbs and Chainorbs - love them both for being able to go anywhere in the game, but the Chainorb in my experience is much tougher to get up and running without some good gear already on hand. I usually wait until I have some before building one.

If you already have a fair amount of +skill/FCR gear, go for it - she's a blast.

 

[Karky]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

I probably won't get my character to more than like 80-85 before I just start doing some mf runs and rushing with her and having fun in hell, so I doubt I'll get to max CB.. would it be better to get the synergy for my ligntning skills with some skill points in CB rather than some skill points in cold mastery to help the orb?

 

[Rhiana]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

1 in Cold Mastery should be enough, at least until you have spare points. You'll be running with at least +7/8 skills, so that's 9 cold mastery.

 

[Painman]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

ChainOrb should run with just 1 in CM. this is a forward looking sort of thing - if you get her decked out, she can have at minimum +16 all skills (Shako, Mara/Tal's Amu, HotO, VMagi, Spirit, 1 SoJ, Arach, Anni and Torch).

A lvl 36 Orb with 17 CM is a Wrecking Ball. You might forget that it's your "secondary" skill. It's downright hurty. it's doing over 1K damage per shard to any monster with 0 base cold res.

The most spartan ChainOrb build is finished at 80. That's maxed Orb, 1 CM, 1 Warmth, 1 Static, 1 Tele, 20 L, 20 CL, 20 LM, and prereqs (factoring in all 12 skill points from quests). Get to 89, and you can have 10 in CB for synergy. Or 10 in Lit with maxed CB. Your choice, but I like a powerful, focused blast of Lit for a left click attack better.

 

[Robobaby]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

You may think lightning immunity is a big problem for single tree light sorcs but it actually isn't. It just slows you down.

Your merc kills everything that is immune to your damage and he doesn't need fabulous gear to do it either although having better gear on your merc ensures his survival more often (which equates to less health/rejuv pots spent keeping him from pushing up daisies and less gold spent ressurrecting him when he does eventually push up daisies). Higher polearm damage also makes the whole thing go faster but you know. Captain Obvious.

The first thing you do is not invest any points in the cold tree. You find or buy or trade for any type of orb that has +1 or more to glacial spike. I got a usable one from Anya. I bind left ctrl to switch weapon sets and I hotkey glacial spike. Whenever I run into light immunes, I tap ctrl and start spamming glacial spikes. Then my merc goes to town relatively safely. If you have to, teleport backwards (thus taking your merc with you) to pull him out of harms way or to clump baddies up so you can freeze a good chunk of them all in one go.

Glacial spike will not completely immobilise super uniques, bosses or champions so things like life leech are still important. As long as you can slow the DPS your merc takes with glacial he will actually heal as he is fighting. Watch out for amplify as monsters packing it can sink your merc fast and you need to be ready with teleport and/or the rejuvs.

With respect to Chainorb - I never found the lightning damage to be all that good given an equivilant number of +skills as a single tree light sorc pumping synergies in nova and charged bolt as well. Lightning immunity is the least common element immunity in hell and that coupled with the fact that your merc + semi decent equipment is enough to beat down 90% of the baddies that you cant kill yourself and I just cannot justify sinking so many points into cold pre reqs and orb.

 

[Rhiana]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

The merc my blizzard sorc uses has Atma's Wail (at somewhere near 1k def), a Grand Crown, I think (not the best, but it has a +30 str bonus) and a CV Insight. He does somewhere around 600-2300 dmg. He tends to survive more often than not, but stuff like Flesh Spawners will destroy him, because I can't pick his target, and he goes for the baby spawns. In ten seconds he's surrounded by a million of them, and throw in the Oblivion mages cursing him, and he's a goner.

And I'm just tired of not being able to kill immunes. So dual tree it is.

 

[Painman]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

Different folks have different priorities. The priority usually (hopefully) boils down to having fun, as Rhiana said, and that isn't always to be found in reaching ZOMG levels of damage in a single tree for everyone. That has its merits, but not for all playstyles.

I also prefer to cruise through the game and be able to kill whatever it is by myself. My merc is an aura giver and a meatshield - he is never my source of killing power (that's my job) except on occasion.

 

[Karky]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

Regarding merces. With a lightning orb sorc you won't really need a tank to keep them still, like you need with blizz and meteor, etc but I'm in sort of a dilemma about what merc to choose. I think I'll end with an act 2 merc, because of the auras and because of insight on polearms. Might won't do me much good, I thought about holy freeze, but I don't think I'll really need the crowd control, and holy freeze activates kind of slowly, so sometimes all the monsters are dead before they even get frozen. Defiance is one thing I'm thinking about.. my sorc won't have a lot of high defence equip, so more def could be nice.. but then again, defiance won't give me a lot of def unless I have a lot of it. Prayer could be nice since my life will replenish.. but isn't that replenish very, very slow?

 

[Painman]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

Prayer isn't very slow. A prayer/insight merc is like perpetual mana/healing potions. He's also quite durable since he's healing himself at an advanced rate, dies less frequently to poison, and you have a bit more time to tele him out of a losing battle.

 

[Karky]

Re: Help With Building a Light/Cold Sorc

well if it isn't very slow, then I think I'll go with that. I just never got the description of the spell.. it just says "heals +5" (example) and I guess I don't quite know what that means