Meteorb Help

[Griffin]

Meteorb Help

I started playing again recently, after all my characters expired. My best character used to be a Meteorb sorc, and I'm going to remake her, trying to make her better as I remember what I didn't like. Two main questions: one about stats, one about skills.

First: max block or no? I believe I tried to last time, and it didn't really work so well (shield didn't have high enough percentage). I don't have any equipment now, so I don't know what shield I'll be using. It seems like it might be better to go max vit. I was planning to do that, but I just accidentally put 5 points in dexterity. I'm a perfectionist, and it might be worth remaking the character if I don't want to go the blocking route. What do you people suggest? Max vit just seems best for mfing.

Second: Skills. Last time, I had 7 or so points in Cold Mastery, and the rest of the spare points went into Fire Bolt (not many extra). At high levels in hell, I found that I used Frozen Orb very rarely, it just wasn't effective enough. I was wishing I had more points out of Cold Mastery and into Fire Bolt to improve my main killing skills. Would it be a good idea to put only one point into Cold Mastery and let skills boost it, or do I really put in 7-8 to make it effective? Prompt replies to these questions would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Miladys-Knight]

I used max block on my meteorb and max vit on my blizzballer. I tend to go max block if my spells are short ranged (ie: frozen orb, enchant, nova etc.) and max vit with builds that are long ranged spells (blizzard, fireball, meteor etc.)

After you mf for a while you will come up with a whitsans guard. For the sorc this is the Highest block shield in the game. Resists suffer using this shield and I prefer to use a splendor heater (best block % for str required IMO) on switch for MF and a double P diamond Mosers on main for high block and resists.

As far as skills go in the last bits of normal and most of nightmare Frozen orb is actually your most effective spell for a meteorb. This flip flops to Meteor/Fireball in late Nightmare and Hell diff when Orb becomes the spell you use only use against fire immunes or to chill the monsters and slow them down before you begin unleashing your storm of fire damage on them.

You should be able to come up with +10 to all skills fairly easily after some decent time spent playing and MFing. The skilll break down I used was:

1 point in prereqs
1 point in static
1 point in teleport

20 Frozen Orb
7 cold mastery (with +10 skills this gives level 17 cold mastery which is -100% to monster cold resists. Very important for the meteorb. Any extra points in to cold mastery are not as effective since they will only reduce the resistances of monster that have Positive cold resists higher than base)

20 Fireball
20 Meteor
20 Fire mastery

I went this way because it gives the best balance between damage for fireball and damage for meteor.

If you only intend to use fire ball you are better off going with

20 firebolt
20 fireball
20 mastery

You don't get to use meteor at all this way but your damage from fireball is much better. The problem is that you have used 20 points on a skill that you wont use once you get fireball (fire bolt).

Against non fire immune monsters I always cast meteor and then toss fireballs during the cool down. Much better damage output per time period in my opinion.

 

[Griffin]

Thanks for writing that out, but I don't think you actually answered my questions. That is excellent info for a meteorb, though. The thing is, I played a Meteorb sorc up to level 91 last ladder. I know about them, except for these two very specific points. As far as blocking goes, I'm just looking for what's most effective, but you seem to have contradicted yourself. You say that you went max block on your Meteorb, but that you like to go max vit with long range spells like Fireball and Meteor. This sorceress will operate mostly in Hell difficulty and late Nightmare, where, as you said Fireball and Meteor are most useful. Those are the most dangerous monsters, and I was wondering which route is best to take when I'll be fighting them. I'm still not really sure which way I want to go.

Also, I know that having a final skill of 17 in Cold Mastery is recommended...I'm just wondering how much Frozen Orb itself suffers if you don't have that much...more like 10 or so. Frozen Orb is rarely used in late nightmare and hell, and it seems as if it might be more effecient to put those points towards synergizing the skills that get used most.

 

[GenXCub]

You can get by with less than 17 in CM, especially if you play mostly solo. You'll only really notice it in A1 Hell, where a lot of the monsters are FI (e.g. fallen).

 

[deadbeater]

I do 17 CM on my meteorb. It helps to have the Tal Rasha set, as it saves 3 levels of CM.

Get some decent block, at least enough for 50 percent. Otherwise, you have to rely on hit recovery a whole lot more than you want to.

Freezing Orb is very effective in hell vs non-cold immunes, especially against fire immunes. As you are not doing massive damage that a purist does, you have to control the field. Fireballs and meteors do not have the field control that Orb does.

 

[3xbd]

I used max block on my meteorb and max vit on my blizzballer. I tend to go max block if my spells are short ranged (ie: frozen orb, enchant, nova etc.) and max vit with builds that are long ranged spells (blizzard, fireball, meteor etc.)

After you mf for a while you will come up with a whitsans guard. For the sorc this is the Highest block shield in the game. Resists suffer using this shield and I prefer to use a splendor heater (best block % for str required IMO) on switch for MF and a double P diamond Mosers on main for high block and resists.

As far as skills go in the last bits of normal and most of nightmare Frozen orb is actually your most effective spell for a meteorb. This flip flops to Meteor/Fireball in late Nightmare and Hell diff when Orb becomes the spell you use only use against fire immunes or to chill the monsters and slow them down before you begin unleashing your storm of fire damage on them.

You should be able to come up with +10 to all skills fairly easily after some decent time spent playing and MFing. The skilll break down I used was:

1 point in prereqs
1 point in static
1 point in teleport

20 Frozen Orb
7 cold mastery (with +10 skills this gives level 17 cold mastery which is -100% to monster cold resists. Very important for the meteorb. Any extra points in to cold mastery are not as effective since they will only reduce the resistances of monster that have Positive cold resists higher than base)

20 Fireball
20 Meteor
20 Fire mastery

I went this way because it gives the best balance between damage for fireball and damage for meteor.

If you only intend to use fire ball you are better off going with

20 firebolt
20 fireball
20 mastery

You don't get to use meteor at all this way but your damage from fireball is much better. The problem is that you have used 20 points on a skill that you wont use once you get fireball (fire bolt).

Against non fire immune monsters I always cast meteor and then toss fireballs during the cool down. Much better damage output per time period in my opinion.

I don't understand why anyone would want firebolt over meteor. They give the same synergies, but meteor has its own use, whereas firebolt does not

 

[Griffin]

Hmm. Thank you deadbeater, that was very helpful. I think I'm going to take your advice. I'll put some dexterity in, up to where it seems like a good amount with a good shield. Probably 150-200, maybe a little more. Frankly, I probably will put the 7 or so points into Cold Mastery too. It does seem worth it. Good enough for me. Thank you all who posted.

 

[Miladys-Knight]

I don't understand why anyone would want firebolt over meteor. They give the same synergies, but meteor has its own use, whereas firebolt does not

There isn't worth it at all. I only point it out here because this same question has been discussed on these forums before. I NEVER use the firebolt synergy unless I'm building a pure fire sorc. Saving the 3 skill points just isn't worth it in my opinion.