"Lesser" cold spells + a couple questions

[Nimbostratus]

"Lesser" cold spells + a couple questions

1. I see all the guides that use Blizzard or Frozen Orb, but has anyone tried a build that maximizes things like glacial spike, frost nova, or ice blast? If so, how well did it do?

2. Are there any effective fire/lightning builds? All I see are cold/fire and cold/lightning.

3. What skills work well with Nova?

4. Are there any effective Blizzard + <lightning skill> builds?

 

[CarloC]

Re: "Lesser" cold spells + a couple questions

Cold/fire and cold/lightning are popular/useful because Orb doesn't need any synergies. Isn't this obvious?

 

[Nimbostratus]

Re: "Lesser" cold spells + a couple questions

Cold/fire and cold/lightning are popular/useful because Orb doesn't need any synergies. Isn't this obvious?

Yes. But I'm looking for something different. Lots of overlooked things can end up being pretty nice when done right (just look at the PDR builds that effectively become invincible in PVM).

Edit: Besides, Orb gets old after a while.

 

[melianor]

Re: "Lesser" cold spells + a couple questions

1. Glacial Spike's damage output is simply too low for hell. Its great for crowd control, but thats about it. What you can use though is Iceblast, which does indeed do alot damage and can be used as a killing spell, if nicely syngergized.

If you do make a search you might find a thread about a Frost Nova Sorc. I think it was a melee type which combined Enchant with Frost Nova. I could not find it atm, but that was kind of the premise of the build.

There has also been a funny idea around about one build that only used synergized cold armors, which was not viable in hell though. In Normal and Nightmare it totally killed monsters passivly.

2. There are nearly no fire/lightning builds around, since both trees rely alot on synergies. The only option you basically have is FW/L/CL for example, since FW is the only fire skill that does not require a synergy to be effective. This would essentially go along the route of CL/Orb.

3. A full synergized Nova will be effective with alot of +skills and can be used as a Countess runner for example. Usually that build gets accompanied by Frozen Orb

There are some pure Lightning builds with Nova as well, but no guide, mostly experimental. A build focused around Nova works though.

4. Well yes, you can replace Orb with Blizzard and go CL/BLizzard, but i think you will be pretty gear dependant here too, since unsynergized Blizzard relies more on Cold Mastery to be effective then.

 

[DH Amazon]

Re: "Lesser" cold spells + a couple questions

Yes. But I'm looking for something different. Lots of overlooked things can end up being pretty nice when done right (just look at the PDR builds that effectively become invincible in PVM).

Edit: Besides, Orb gets old after a while.

1. Pure frost nova works. Not much room for backup skill.

2. Fireball+Lightning(CL) works (Tal set)
Hydra+CL works, both have weak synergies
Enchant+Nova works
Fireball+CB works

3. Nova works well with enchant as they share best weapon (Crescent moon, phase blade) and you need to be very close to enemies with Nova. With melee sorc you can jump middle of group. And mana hungry Nova likes full Warmth.

4. Blizz Lightning,
Blizz+CL this one is very good combination if you want to do solo baalruns in hell. You can cast blizz before next wave appears and CL owns waves 1-3. Blizz owns last two.
Blizz+CB works too


Blaze, Thunderstorm, Inferno these 3 skills are not hell viable (can kill, but not fast enough for fun play), almost any other combination works at least in some degree *).


*) As good merc can clear throne and kill alll waves in solo hell game. So almost all combinations are hell baal viable. Just pickup your favorite merc, equip him/her as good as possible and then try to just help and keep him/her alive.


edit: Usually around lvl30-35 skills needed for fun play with these odd combinations, so good items, anni+torch and 1-2 skillers is good start.

 

[clefairy]

Re: "Lesser" cold spells + a couple questions

Is an enchant + lightning (possibly using dreams) sorc any good?

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: "Lesser" cold spells + a couple questions

@clefairy, if you go with Lightning Mastery and the dual-dreams, it's a very, very strong melee build.

1. Pure frost nova works. Not much room for backup skill.

Firewall's a decent low-cost solution for a FrostNova sorc, but you're right - I had to keep my Cold Mastery pretty low to get a reasonable Firewall. But in my opinion, it's still a fun idea if you're looking for something different. I did a full writeup for my (successful) attempt here: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=606863


I've also tried my hand at a full-IceBlast sorc. Her damage against single targets was typically higher than pure blizzard (once you factor in spam vs. casting delays), but the complete lack of an area of effect was a real drawback (I tried some Pindlskin & Ancient Tunnels runs with her, and she's quite slow compared to my Blizzy). Sadly, this was more of a "looks good on paper, but sucks in practice" idea.

Also, the speed that the IceBlast missiles is quite slow - they travel across the screen at ~60% of the speed of a fireball, so more often you have to have stationary targets, hope they don't move out of the way, or stand a little closer to your target. If you have a Meteorb, you can test this yourself to see what I mean.