The PvP Light/Es Sorc

The PvP Light/Es Sorc

This is my first attempt at a guide, so bear with me.

I-Intro

What is an ES sorc? An ES sorc is a sorc that uses Energy Shield and relies on her mana pool to keep her alive. This guide attempts to show how to build an ES sorc that uses lightning as her primary attack.

II-Essential ES Info.

Q. So what does Energy Shield do for us?
A. Energy Shield redirects a % of damage taken to mana instead of life. The % absorb reaches its peak at 95% at skill level (slvl.) 40.

Q. Does Energy Shield have any synergies?
A. Energy Shield has one synergy, telekinesis (TK).

Q. How does TK help energy shield?
A. Without TK the damage taken while using ES will be 2 points of mana for every 1 point of damage. Every point in TK lowers damage to mana that is taken by 6.25%. With 20 points invested into TK the factor at which damage is taken to mana is 0.75 for every one point lost. This of course is much better than our previous 2:1 ratio.

Q. So if I put more points into TK I can lower the damage I take even more?
A. No, only actual points placed in TK will lower the damage. So after slvl. 20 extra points don’t mean anything.

Q. Does Energy Shield redirect all attacks?
A. No, open wounds as well as poison bypass Energy Shield.

Q. Does Energy Shield redirect damage after resistances are applied?
A. No, Energy Shield redirects damage before resistances are applied. That means resistances are only applies after your mana is damaged and only to the 5% that reached your life.

Q. Do I need to have damage reduce when using Energy Shield?
A. Having Damage Reduced by X and Magic Damage Reduced by X can be very useful to have because it is applied after Energy Shield redirects damage. So, it reduces and can possibly negates the minimal 5% damage that gets through.

Q. Will I be able to absorb with X% absorb/+X absorb items?
A. No, since X% absorb/+X absorb is taken into affect after Energy Shield redirects damage it is only applied to the 5% damage that gets through making it of little use.

Q. How does FHR work with Energy Shield?
A. “When something that hits you deals more than 1/12 of your overall life than you will become stunned, and the amount of FHR that you have will effect the amount of time that you are stunned for, the more FHR the better. In my experience though stun with Energy Shield is measured not by total life lost, but is worked by damage alone, and not the actually felt.†In other words, it is important and I would go for a descent amount of FHR.

III-General Sorc. Info.

Faster Cast Rate Breakpoints:

Frame 13 12 11 10 9 8 7
FCR Needed 0% 9% 20% 37% 63% 105% 200%
Casts/sec 1.92 2.08 2.27 2.50 2.78 3.13 3.57

Lightning/Chain Lightning Faster Cast Rate Breakpoints:

Frame 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
FCR Needed 0% 7% 15% 23% 37% 52% 78% 117%
Casts/sec 1.92 2.08 2.27 2.50 2.78 3.13 3.57 3.57

Faster Hit Recovery Breakpoints:

Frame 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6
FHR 0% 5% 9% 14% 20% 30% 42% 60% 86% 142%

IV-Stats

Starting Stats:

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 25

Vitality: 10

Energy: 35

Each point in:

Vitality gives +2 life

Energy gives +2 mana

Stat Placement:

Strength: Enough to use your gear. Make sure you know exactly what you’re going to wear before you start putting points into this in order to have as little strength as possible to wear all your equipment.

Dexterity: Dex. Can go two ways. You can either put enough for max block or enough to use your items. Not going max block will result in more mana, but being able to block melee attacks 75% of the time really comes in handy. It’s your call on this one.

Vitality: None, that’s right nothing at all, mana is our life in this build.

Energy: Everything else, the more mana the better.

V-Skills

Synergy Information:

Energy Shield-
• Telekinesis: Reduces mana loss

Lightning-
• Charged Bolt: 8% damage/level
• Chain Lightning: 8% damage/level
• Nova: 8% damage/level

Chain Lightning-
• Charged Bolt: 4% damage/level
• Nova: 4% damage/level
• Lightning: 4% damage/level

Charged Bolt-
• Lightning: 6% damage/level

Skill Placement:

Lightning Spells:

Lightning: 20
Lightning Mastery: 20
Telekinesis: 20
*Chain Lightning: 20 or see below
*Charged Bolt: 20 or see below
**Energy Shield: 7+

Fire Spells:

Warmth: 1

Cold Spells:

No points in the cold tree.

*Regarding Chain Lightning and Charged Bolt you can go one of two ways. You can either max Charged Bolt and continue adding to Chain Lightning as you level
up or you can max Chain Lightning and continue adding to Charged bolt as you level up. I find that Charged Bolt is a much more useful skill in PvP. Either way one will be left unmaxed, its your call.

**Energy Shield must be at slvl. 40 to reach max 95% absorb. So, we want as few points into Energy Shield as possible in order to better synergize our attacks. The minimum number of points that can be placed into Energy Shield while still obtaining 95% damage redirection is 7 with perfect prebuffing gear (see Gear Selection). However, you can put more into this if you cannot get all of the prebuff gear.

VI-Gear Selection

Helm:

Harlequin Crest- +2 skills, +2 all attributes, 50 magic find, +life/mana based on level, 10% damage reduction.

The best helm for this build. What’s not to like? It gives skills, attributes life and most importantly mana.

Rare Circlet- +2 sorceress/light skills, 20% FCR, +mana, +energy, +str., +dex. damage reduced by X.

A good choice if you happen to get your hands on a circlet that has the mods listed above, hard to find though.

Armor:

Skin of the Vipermagi- +1 all skills, 30% faster cast, +20-35 all resists, magic damage reduced by 9-15

This armor is perfect for our build; FCR, +skills and magic damage reduce. Not much reason to use anything else.

Amulet:

Wraith Collar- +2 sorceress skills, 10 faster cast, +18 dex, +21 life, cold resist 18%, light resist 16%, fire resist 22%, poison resist 50%

A great amulet with the most important mods for us being the skills, and FCR. The dex is useful if you trying to get max block.

Crafted Caster Amulet- +2 sorceress/light skills, 10-20% FCR, +mana, +energy, damage reduced by X.

Could possibly spawn with the above mods, if you happen to get one with the mods listed above it would be a great choice to use.

Rings:

The Stone of Jordan- +1 To All Skill Levels, Increase Maximum Mana 25%, +20 To Mana, Adds 1-12 Lightning Damage

These give skills and a huge boost to mana not much else to say.

Shield:

Lidless Wall- +1 To All Skills, Increase Maximum Mana 10%, 20% Faster Cast Rate, +3-5 To Mana After Each Kill, +10 To Energy, +1 To Light Radius

+skills, an increase in maximum mana, FCR, and +energy, enough said.

Whitstan's Guard- Half Freeze Duration, 40% Faster Block Rate, +55% Increased Chance Of Blocking, +5 To Light Radius

This is the shield to use of you have decided to go the max block rout. An 87% chance to block and a low str. requirement is why we like this, because it allows us to put very few points in strength and dexterity while still maintaining max block. Slap an eld rune in this and it lowers the dex. requirement for 75% block even more.

Boots:

Imp Shank- 30% faster run/walk, 20% faster hit recovery, +18 strength, light resist 22%, poison resist 22% fire resist 35%

Rare boots with good mods for us like FHR and +strength, can get a bit expensive though.

Silkweave- 30% faster run/walk, +5 mana after kill, increase mana 10%, +200 defense vs. missiles

Only really useful mod here is the increase in mana, but it gives a nice boost that cannot be ignored.

Gloves:

Frostburn- increase Maximum Mana 40%, other unimportant mods.

The mana that these babies give is insane and is a must for this build.

Belts:

Arachnid Mesh- +1 all skills, 20% faster cast, 5% maximum mana.

Faster cast, more mana, and skills, what more could you want?

Weapon:

Heart of the Oak- +3 To All Skills, +40% Faster Cast Rate, +75% Damage To Demons, +100 To Attack Rating Against Demons, Adds 3-14 Cold Damage, 3 sec. Duration (Normal), 7% Mana Stolen Per Hit, +10 To Dexterity, Replenish Life +20, Increase Maximum Mana 15%, All Resistances +30-40 (varies), Level 4 Oak Sage (25 Charges), Level 14 Raven (60 Charges), +50% Damage To Undead

This gives us skills, faster cast rate, +dexterity, life replenish, and a nice little increase in mana which are all mods that we love.

Eschuta's Temper- +1-3 To Sorceress Skill Levels, 40% Faster Cast Rate, 10-20% To Fire Skill Damage, 10-20% To Lightning Skill Damage, 20-30 To Energy

Find one with +3 sorceress skills and a good amount of light skill damage and you have got a nice little weapon there. The increase in energy further sweetens the deal.

On Switch:

Call to Arms: +1 To All Skills, +40% Increased Attack Speed, +250-290% Enhanced Damage (varies), Adds 5-30 Fire Damage, 7% Life Stolen Per Hit, +2-6 To Battle Command (varies)*, +1-6 To Battle Orders (varies)*, +1-4 To Battle Cry (varies)*, Prevent Monster Heal, Replenish Life +12, 30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Get one with the highest + to battle orders you can get….obviously.

Lidless Wall- +1 To All Skills, Increase Maximum Mana 10%, 20% Faster Cast Rate, +3-5 To Mana After Each Kill, +10 To Energy, +1 To Light Radius

The +1 skills further adds to your battle orders.

Energy Shield Prebuffing Gear:

+9 Energy Shield Memory Staff
+3 Light Skills Circlet
+3 Energy Shield Ormus’ Robes
+3 Light Skills Amulet

With a base slvl. 7 Energy Shield, switching to those before casting Energy Shield and along with you 2xsoj’s, Arachnids’ Mesh, 10xlight GC’s, annihilus, and the +1 from Battle Command will give you a level 40 energy shield which will allow you to achieve 95% mana redirection.

 

VII- PvP Strategies

*Note: These strategies assume Good Mannered duels with no absorb. Under no circumstances are you to use Charged Bolt on someone that is absorbing you, you will do nothing but heal them, you have been warned.
**Note: A sidestep is simply a quick teleport away from your opponent usually on or near the same screen, most of the time used when someone teleports on you.

Amazon

Bowazon: Easy Duel (if you went max block)- If you decided to go the max block rout this is an easy duel. If not the way to duel them is the same you just need to be more careful because they can get a lock on you with their arrows and knock u back. Get in close and charge bolt. You can use lightning if your having a hard time getting close or if they run away from the bolts before they can hit them, but that makes their dodge a problem. Since CB fires multiple bolts in one shot it renders there dodge useless as they cannot dodge them all which usually means a quick kill.

Javazons: Hard Duel- These girls hurt. If a good one lands a charged strike on you it can completely wipe out your mana pool one more hit and your toast. Getting hit will also most likely lead to more hits, because all the damage CS does stuns us so try not to let them get close. Keep your distance and keep firing. Also, T-god’s seems to be ubiquitous among them, so get ready for a long duel if their resists are good.

Necromancer

Bone Necro: Easy Duel- Thanks to your Energy Shield their spears will do very little if any damage to your life. Chase them down and hit them with lightning. Watch out for the really defensive ones that do nothing but teleport away and cast spirit nonstop, because if they get lucky or you get careless they could all catch up, hit you at once significantly lowering your mana pool.

Summon Necro: Easy Duel- Don’t let them tele on you, keep moving while firing lightning whenever possible. If they do happen to tele on you escaping shouldn’t be a problem as the skeletons don’t do enough damage to stop us from teleporting out. If they use revives it just makes the duel longer, because they are harder to hit and if they are immune to light then you may need to wait it out till they expire.

Poison: Medium-Hard Duel- Haven’t dueled many good ones. Play defensively, don’t get caught in a nova, because the poison will completely bypass your Energy Shield and bring your low life to 1 before you know it. Stay out of novas range and try and snipe them with light.

Druid

Shape Shifting- Easy Duel- If you went with max block this one should be no problem, if you didn’t you cannot let them get close, cuz these guys usually hit hard and fast. They cant teleport so as long as you don’t let them get close to you there should be no reason to get hit. If you went max block you can stand and CB them while they run at your and into a field of bolts.

Wind- Medium Duel- This can be one very long duel if the druid is skilled. Typically they will try and chase to get a name lock and teleport on you. Try and stay about a screen away so they cant name lock you. Cast a blanket of CB’s and when he teleports after you he should run into your field getting rid of his oak sage. Now he will do one of two things, he will keep trying to teleport on you or retreat recast/re-summon. If he tries to teleport on you (which he will be able to do since you are now close to him) sidestep is teleport and toss lightning at him. By now cyclone armor will be gone or just about gone, if he is smart he will teleport away and recast it. This is when you chase him, try and finish him before he has a chance to recast. If he does recast you need to start over. Same goes for if he retreated after the initial charged bolt.

Sorceress

Fireball.- Medium Duel- Pure fireball sorcs should be able to just about take
Out your mana pool with one fireball, so be careful not to get hit. There are typically two kinds of fireballers: the ones that stand and fire in a circle around themselves trying to hit you from afar and the ones that come after you trying to get a name lock and teleport on you. If you come across the first type tele around them in a circle dodging fireballs. As you do this start closing the gap between you and her until you are close enough to hit her with a lightning or two. Never stop moving, if they recover from your shots are still alive and manage to land a fireball your in trouble so be careful. If you run across the ladder type you need to keep on the move the entire time. Dodge their fireballs while keeping your distances and trying to snipe them with lightning. If you know their going to come after you and try and teleport on you cast a field of charged bolts so when they will run into them. If they have a low fast hit rate tele to the side (not to close) and shoot. If their fast hit rate is high and they do not get locked easily you need to continue to teleport and dodge until they die.

Blizzard- Easy Duel- You should always be able to take at least one blizz, so chase them down and hit them. Take advantage of blizz being a timed spell and shoot once they finish casting.

Light- Hard Duel- Do not get hit. Their lightning has the possibility of taking out your mana orb as well as your life orb in one hit if you get a strong one. So, avoid being hit at all costs. Aside from that dueling is the same as with a fireball sorc.

Orb- Easy Duel- Their orb should never reach your life. Often times they leave in the middle of the duel accuse you of potting or hacking or something ridiculous, because they cant hurt you. Anyways, chase them down and fire lightning. Not much else to do here because their orb is easy for us to tank with our Energy Shield so don’t be afraid to get right in their faces and fire.

Paladin

Hammer- Easy-Medium duel- Their either going to try and teleport on you and hammer or make you chase them and hope you run into their hammer field. If he chases you, stay on your toes, when he teleports on you teleport away and shoot. If they try and make you chase them you can either wait for them to get bored and come after you, or you can go ahead and chase them. Try not to get close, because he will always be deep within a field of hammers. Stay away and try and snipe them with lightning. You should be able to take 1-2 hammers so even if you get careless and you are hit you should be alright.

FOH- Easy duel- Most of the time an easy duel, because since energy shield takes damage before resistances are applied we need not worry about their conviction. The ones that are a problem are the ones with high light damage that take out your mana no matter what your resists are. Generally, you can tank 3-4 hits without worrying. So try and get in close and either CB or lightning.

Zeal- Easy duel- Get your melee gear on if you went max block and lay a blanket of CB’s as they are coming at you. Once they get to you, you can either keep using CB or switch to lightning. Almost all of the time you will be able to tank them. If you notice your mana going down faster than his life or open wounds went into affect early in the duel then teleport keep some distance while you shoot at him. If you didn’t go max block keep your distance at all times and snipe from afar.

Barbarian

Whirl Wind- Easy-Hard duel- Some can be tanked, others trying to tank is a death wish. Depending on how good they are this could be an easy duel or a moderately difficult one. This is where max block becomes invaluable. Once he teleports on you sidestep and shoot. If he is foolish enough to do a long whirl wind, punish him with lightning. CB is a good skill here, because you know he will teleport on you, so set up a field and teleport away when he comes. If he hits you and open wounds comes into affect then you really need to be careful to not get hit again and finish him fast. If you do not have max block this will most likely be a very hard duel if the barbarian is good. The most important thing to remember is to not let him hit you, because with no block one whirl wind will most likely set off open wounds and then death comes fast.

Singer- Easy duel- They have a lot of life so dueling them may take a little while but you should come out on top. All they can do is chase you trying to get a name lock and stun you with war cry. Even if they do manage to catch up to you and hit you, you should be able to escape, but don’t get caught anyways, stay away and shoot them with lightning. When they come in close you can lay a field of CB and let them teleport into it.

Assassin

Trap- Easy-Hard duel- Typically two kinds, one will lay traps and sit in them while the traps do the work. These ones are easy, teleport around them in a circle and snipe them down with lightning. The other kind will chase you while laying traps and trying to catch you in stun lock with mind blast. These are the tough ones. Never stop moving, because once you get caught in mind blast it’s a slow painful death. Stay about a screen away at all times and fire light from far away.

Whirl Wind- Hard duel- These ones are tough, because most all of their damage comes from open wounds and poison. Just our luck, the two types of damage that goes through Energy Shield all rolled up in a neat little twirling package. Stay away, some will try and mind blast and use traps to stun you, don’t let them, one hit will most likely bring your life down to 1 if open wounds comes into affect. Try and hit them with lightning from far away. This could end up being a fairly long duel, because they are equipped with claw block which can block our lightning. Duel gets easier depending on their poison damage.

VIII- My Energy Shield Sorceress

SoNic_ChAoS
Lvl. 90
Str. 60 w/ gear on
Dex. Enough to give me max block w/ an eld Whitstans.
Vit. Base
Energy. Everything I had left

Life: ~800
Mana: 2.9k-3.4k depending on my setup
Lightning Damage: 6-24k
Charged Bolt: 827-857, 24 bolts
Chain Lightning: 6-8k

Gear:
Helm: Mal/Sol/P Skull Shako
Amulet: Wraith Collar
Weapon: HOTO
Armor: P Vipermagi Maled
Shield: Mal/Sol/Sur Lidless & Elded Witstans
2xSoJ’s & 10%fcr +53 mana for use with Witsans to keep my fcr
Frostburns
Arachnids
Impshanks

IX- Credits

Soulesschild

Sartok

Soepgroente

Zarhrezz

The Arreat Summit- http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/runewords.shtml

D2Tables- http://d2tables.com/

p.s- i could have sworn I already posted my guide here, but I can't find it, so sorry if im double posting.

 

No comments?

 

Hey, ive been trying to find lightning sorc guide...I have some questions on some equipment and if there are ANY other guides for light PVP Light Sorc....i bought a 20 20 light bug monarch, would that be a good choice for a sheild?....And my questions on a guide other than energy shield....it's just unbearable to go without vita...seems pretty scarce...i made a light sorc yesterday...all vita....no max block...no ES...bad move...now i gotta remake her....in your opinion....ES or Max Block?

 

max block + energy sheild

Whistan Sheild

 

Hey thanks for the great guide..

 

Suggestions:

Helm: Powered Circlet of Life-Everlasting. +3 Light skills, 25 Straight DR, 2 sockets. Better than Shako for sure. Socket with 2 x Mal's

Amulet: +3 Light Skills with 25 Straight DR or 6 MDR (Powerd Amulet of Life-Everlasting or Powered Amulet of Negation)

Armour: Gladiators Bane (20 PDR, 20 MDR) Godlike Stats for an ES sorc. Socket with a Sol or a Mal

Shield: Gerkes Sanctuary (High PDR, High MDR, Socket with a Mal or Sol)


Using the above Suggested Gear, i think you'll find that the ES sorc could withstand Massive amounts of damage.





Arb

 

Agreed, must have skipped over them because im not a big fan of the strength requirements on the glad bane or gereks but yeah they are great for this build, i updated it on the 'master copy' but not sure how to do it here because the edit button is gone.

 

why not griffon for helm?

how does % damage to mana work with es?

ehh, i had alot more questions last night when i fell asleep, but cant remember now

otherwise, great guide that got me interested in building one

edit: you can make one of the mods sticky this guide and maybe give you privileges to edit in it....

oh yeh, also some advice on what gear to use vs specific builds could be a nice addition to the guide...like whitstans and fcr ring(s) vs melee but lidless and sojs vs other elemental builds etc...

 

Can this guide be sticky? I use it lots for my Es/blizzard mf sorc

 

so, any answers to my questions/comments? im makin one atm, so i would like to know

 

Nice guide, but dupes are a no-no on this forum.

 

Griffons isnt a good helm for this build imo because it doesnt offer the mods we need. No dr, no MDR, no mana, and only +1 skills. The % lightning skill damage helps our damage little and to give up the mokds I listed for -% enemy lightning resistance isnt worth it. Still, i suppose i should probably add it to the gear selection.

Damage from mana is subtracted from the actual damage you take, so its of very little use. Baisically the higher your ES is the less effective % damage to mana works.

 

Comment on dupes: The trading of dupes is a no-no on this forum. Mentioning them in a guide will not be a problem. Suggestion of none-dupe items int he guide to replace those would be nice to see though.

There is a Lightning Sorceress Guide too in the Sorceress Guide Library which is very thourugh....., which uses no dupes

http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=563

 

the way i see it, % dr has same benefits as damage to mana then...and the -enemy lit res more than makes up for the skill it has less than shako. true, it has no mana or life, but i guess it depends what other gear you have. the fcr on griffon could mean you could have alot of +str, life, mana on crafted or rare belt and amu for example. what i would like is calculations of dam/mana/life in each setup. Im too lazy to do it myself and not sure of the formulas involved either, so if someone else feels like it, be my guest

 

i have a problem with this sorc...

i got about 14k lightning damage...at lvl 86 with CB, lightning and LM maxed
why isnt it more?

and i seem to take extreme damage in duels, which lowers my mana pool rather fast, also i take high amounts of "life damage", almost every attack 1hit k.o me...

any help would be nice

-peace

 

when posting with these kinda questions, giving as much information as possible is a good idea. when you dont tell what gear, skills etc you have its hard for anyone to help you....have you even read the whole guide and understodd what it said?

 

as you wish

perfect eushtas temper with a lightning facet 3+/-5
shako with a lightning facet 3+/-5
35% viperskin with a lightning facet 3+/-5
perfect spirit monarch
3+lightskills/10fcr amulet
arachnid mesh
sandstorm treks 12/14 50 res non-eth
frostburn gloves
i do lack 2xsoj but i will get them soon
4x lightskillers plain
cta/spirit on switch

skills:
maxed lightning slvl 37 (dmg 6-13165)
maxed lightning mastery slvl 37 (482%)
maxed telekinesis slvl 37
near-maxed charged bolt slvl 36 (dmg 544-571)
teleport 1 point slvl 18 (mana cost 7)
warmth 1point slvl 11 (mana regain 150%)
thunderstorm 1point slvl 18 (dmg 1057-1661)
energy shield slvl 29 (absorbs 84%)

500 life and 2k mana at lvl 86 with no sojs and crap bo


i plan to get my inventory filled with light skillers and 2xsojs
but will this really help that much?
if i need i will proboably get a memory staff too

why isnt this sorc any good?
whats wrong?

 

when you say "any good" what do you mean? you loose every single match you enter? you get pwned by people with perfect stuff? you cant expect to win vs. everybody, especially if you arent experienced in pvp with this type of char. alot comes down to playing style and being able to adapt vs other classes.

And yes, full inventory of lit skiller and a nice memory to bring up the es lvl _will_ help.

 

i lose to:

wwbarbs
fireball sorces
necros
hammerdins
smiters(big big BIG problem with these guys)
trappers
chargers

i have no problem vs windys...and thats strange...but these are pubby duellers mind you...

i dont expect to beat everyone, but i did expect to win about 50% of my duels, now i win about 10%