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Tri Sorc Revision 2 MF/KeyRunner/Baal/Rusher
Intro
Firstly, I would like to state that Tri Sorcs are the do it alls of Hell. I use mine to do everything I need to get my other builds up and running. The only thing it cannot do as of yet is Ubers. I have been refining this build over the entire time I have played it works and has worked for 6 years. So yes this is a Tri Sorc build that works. Try it and see its awesome power. The items for this build will be cheap to get it up and running and more expensive towards the end. Another thing to note you will not be getting 1 hit kills in Hell so yes it takes time but, all in all I find it a hell of a lot more enjoyable. This build is also a PvM build. If you try to PvP with it there is a good chance you will die easily. The reason for this revision is mainly to answer questions of stats and how I can kill anything with such supposedly low damage. It was also done because of a lack of pertinent information and to give a better done open source character for trying the build out without taking a ton of time to do so.
A little education on how this build works
This build works off of a very fine balance of items spells and knowledge of how to use the sorceress. The main reason why this build works is because of %Damage goes to mana. The more of this you have the better off you actually are. Here is how Damage goes to mana works, "Nightsmoke: When combined with Sorceress' Energy Shield: The effects of Energy Shield are applied first, then the resulting damages are modified by
Nightsmoke. That ability doesn't change how much damage you take at all. It just calculates 50% of however much damage you took and gives you that much mana." So having a high energy shield is actually more detrimental and balancing the energy shield with damage goes to mana is the goal. You want to gain back the mana you lost and then some. You may or may not be able to gain all the mana back it depends on the items you are using, skills invested, etc. Using Naj’s Plate, (Ith’d), Nightsmoke (Up’d), and Aldur’s Boots you end up with 120% Damage taken goes to mana.
Next we take a look at the order things are applied in.
* Energy Shield: This is where the damage is redirected by Energy Shield and mana loss due to Energy Shield occurs.
* Damage Reduced by X/Magic Damage Reduced by X: The damage that is not redirected by Energy Shield is reduced by the appropriate amount and possibly nullified.
* Resistances: Resistances are applied. This phase does not just include the resistances listed in the character screen (Fire/Cold/Lightning/Poison) but also Magical damage and Physical damage (gained from equipment like Shaftstop). This phase is also where curses like Lower Resist, Amplify Damage and Decrepify are applied, as is Conviction.
* X% absorb: %-wise absorb is applied here. I won't go into details here, since we aim to avoid this phase.
* +X absorb: See above.
* Damage Goes to Mana: Mana is gained based on the amount of damage still left at this point.
* Ouch: Damage is applied to life.
* Mana Burn: Technically not part of the damage resolution, but part of the hit resolving that occurs after damage resolution. I mention it here to indicate that it will not take down Energy Shield before Energy Shield gets the chance to redirect the damage.
Everyone knows or should know that putting points into telekinesis lowers the mana taken by energy shield. Frankly we do not have the points to spare in order to do this.
Ok now the reasoning behind everything. This build is a balance of everything a sorc needs and wants along with a balance of burdens put on the sorc by certain spells. In order to reap the benefits you should follow this build to the letter. Everything
in this build supports another feature which supports another and another. If you choose to not follow the build pretty much to the letter it will fail. This build is like a house of cards. If you mess up the slightest bit in one area the entire house falls on top of itself.
Damage Taken Goes to Mana
This is something that most people do not know a whole lot about. Damage Taken Goes to Mana takes any non-poison melee damage left after normal midigation and does a straight multiplication across. So if you take 100 damage 33 gets through towards your health you lose the 33 health but, if you have 120% Damage Taken Goes to Mana you gain back 33*1.2= 39.6 mana. The amount of mana given back is not an extremely large amount but, it is enough to be able to give you enough for that one last spell to kill or enough to be able to teleport away. A lot of people feel that it is worthless and not worth it, I disagree completely I have been using it for sometime. When you are using a Tri Sorc the amount of mana you go through is insane. Also because of the amount of skills that are used and how spread out they are you do not have that ability to necessarily get what you need for certain things. A defense is one thing so what I do is I wear the Damage Taken Goes to Mana gear. This makes this disadvantage actually help me. Another disadvantage is it takes time to kill things so, if they are extra fast they will be on you sometimes faster then you can teleport. Most of the time the stygian dolls kill sorcs. This is because when you kill them they explode and most of the time when they do they are right next to you. Damage Taken Goes to Mana helps you with both of these mainly because you are surround and constantly being hit. This will give you the mana to teleport away normally twice. That can be enough to save your life and has many times for me.
The Math
This part gets extraordinarily tricky there is a lot that comes into play here. Simply put here is the formulas we need. Also % Damage taken goes to mana is only implemented in melee attacks.
Damage to life = InitialDamage*(W/100)*(1-X/100)*(1-Y/100)*(1-Z/100)
W = PvP penalty (for most, if not all attacks 17%)
X = % resistance (or damage reduction in case of a physical attack)
Y = % chance to block (in case of a physical attack or blockable elemental attack)
Z = % energy shield
Damage to mana = Damage*(2 – 0,0625x)*(W/100)
x = slvl telekinesis
W = pvp penalty
Damage to mana/Damage to life*100 = Amount of DmgToMana% needed to fully restore lost mana
Mana regen per second = 25 * [ [256 * MaxMana / 3000] * (100 + BaseRegenRateBonus) / 100] / 256.
Mana gained from DmgToMana%= Damage to life * (D/100)
D = % Damage Taken goes to Mana
Total Blocking = [(Blocking * (Dexterity - 15)) / (Character Level * 2)]
Chance of Potion Double Heal
Vitality: 100 - (10000 / Vitality)
Energy: Energy / 4
Working off what we have for information we start to fill in what we know. We will say the attack does 572 physical damage This is how much Lilith and Ãœber Mephisto do for melee damage aka most melee damage in the game. We will also say that you are using my hell setup for the calculation. 589 for mana pool is the absolute lowest if u finished the build and managed to get the worst of everything for the hell items.
Damage to life = 572*(1-0.10)*(1-0.40)*(1-.067) = 101.9304
Damage to mana = 572*(2-0.0625) = 1108.25
Amount of DmgToMana% for full recovery of mana = (1108.25/101.9304)*100 = 1087.26
Mana Gained back from DmgToMana% = (101.9304)*(1.2) = 122.31648
Mana regen per second = 25*[ ( 256*589/3000)*(100+295)/100 ] /256 = 19.39
Total Blocking = [ (42*(92-15)) / (87*2) ] = 18.59
Chance of Potion Double Heal Health = 100 – (10000/198) = 49.5%
Chance of Potion Double Heal Mana = 152 / 4 = 38%
Spell Reasoning
The reason why the points in Shiver Armor, Thunder Storm, and Energy Shield are the way they are is strictly for the amount of time they stay up. Energy Shield is also done for the balance of %Damage goes to Mana and Energy Shield. Fire Mastery over Fire
Ball synergy the reasoning behind this is you will not have enough points to get the explosion high enough to 1 shot things. Along with that if you use the burn time like a firewall and stand there while you drop meteors on their heads. You can take a couple of hits because of the %Damage goes to Mana. Also you can light a trail up and lure them into the trail causing alot of damage. Meph also dies faster when you use the Corner of the Screen trick. The burn time will amount to a larger number then that of the immediate strike of the meteor. Frozen Orb needs only 1 point in cold mastery everything you wear will add to it. Meteor and Orb are at 20 because they are your default damage skills. Frozen orb will slow them while you drop meteors on their heads. It is a tried and true setup. The difference now is you get that added damage from thunderstorm. Along with that the lightning mastery will add up to enough damage you can take down Dual Immune Fire/Cold Monsters. The dual immunes leads to the reason why use thunderstorm. First of all you are a Tri Sorc damage is spread out all over the trees so you want to get in as much damage as you can. By having thunderstorm up you get both the damage from that and the damage from chain lightning which you use in combination with static field to kill dual immunes. It will take a while but, you will be able to kill them. A down side though is if there is too many people in the game it may regen faster then you can kill him. The Reason why I use masteries is because most of the synergies take a lot of points and also because the masteries improve damage through out the tree of skills. This allows me to be able to use chain lightning with only 1 pt in it and have it do 1 to about 500 dmg. With this build it is soo spread out it causes you to have to use masteries.
Uses
Key Runner
Rusher
MF
Baal Runner
How the Setup Works
Main Attack
Frozen Orb
Meteor
Defense
Energy Shield
Shiver Armor
Teleport
Alt Attack
Thunderstorm
Chain Light
Static Field
Skill Distribution
Cold Skills
1 Ice Bolt
1 Ice Blast
1 Glacial Spike - Prerequisites for Frozen Orb
1 Frost Nova
1 Blizzard
1 Frozen Armor - Prerequisite for Shiver Armor
1 Shiver Armor
1 Cold Mastery
20 Frozen Orb
Fire Skills
1 Fire Bolt
1 Fire Ball
1 Inferno - Prerequisites for Meteor
1 Blaze
1 Fire Wall
10 Warmth
10 Fire Mastery
20 Meteor
Light Skills
1 Static Field
1 Nova
1 Telekinesis
1 Light Bolt - Prerequisites for Thunder Storm + Energy Shield
1 Teleport
1 Lightning
1 Chain Light
5 Thunder Storm
4 Energy Shield
10 Light Mastery
Total Skill Points 99
Skill Quests -12
Actual Level =87
Stats
Strength 156
You are a Sorc not a melee person you do not need hi strength. The reason it is even this high is so you can use a spirit monarch in ladder.
Dexterity 75
This is for Wizardspike primarily. It also increases chance to block a little bit.
Energy 130
The reason I did not go higher for this is because of the fact the more health you have the better and I don't lose a lot of mana because of damage goes to mana. Also because of Warmth and mana regenerate items.
Vitality 150+
Put everything you have left into vitality the more health you have the less you have to worry about it. Plus if you get poisoned it helps to have time to hit pots. You also need this high health to allow you to take hits for damage goes to mana to work.
Equipment
The things to look for:
+ Skills
% Increase Maximum Mana
% Damage taken goes to Mana
Some stuff is expensive but, not everything hear is needed. Everything here has been picked out with careful consideration. Anytime you are doing MFing you want to try and have around 50 % damage goes to mana or higher. If you don't its going to be much
harder to play.
MF Setup
Starting out sell crap items from baal runs and look at Larzuk for MF Items each run and also ask for a nightsmoke it drops fairly often and you can get it cheap if not for free. This will help you get some crappy MF items to help start you on your way. Also pick up every ring and amy people will drop crappy ones. Transmute them in your cube till you get rings and ammys you want. Remember 3 ammys=1 ring and 3 rings = 1 ammy. Normally I do this all the way through the entire time I'm leveling. By the time I hit Nightmare I normally have 20-30% MF rings and ammys. Your Defense will not be a problem as you will be doing meph runs in NM to start using the moat trick example video. On top of that remember you have Shiver armor it will boost your defense so don't worry. You are also not going to want to MF till you get to Nightmare it will be a waste of time otherwise. Once in NM MF for an occy it normally doesn’t take more then 100 runs about 3 hrs. Once you have an occy you should be able to MF Meph inhell. I do this till I get something worth Naj’s armor. Once I get Najs armor and I have nightsmoke I MF andy for about 200 runs 4-5hrs. This normally produces a shako. Then once I have that I do NM countess runs and get the runes for Spirit and an ith takes about an 1hr. Once I have the runes I do mosoleum, next to blood raven, runs in hell and mf there while I hit the armor and weapon shrines. This normally produces a monarch and a flail in about 100 runs aka 1hr. I then go to normal and get the larzuk socket quest and use it on my monarch. Because the larzuk quest he adds the maximum number of sockets possible. You end up with a 40s monarch that u can make a spirit. Then do the same for nm and do it to your shako. This will be easy. Then I do Larzuk in hell add the socket to my armor and ith it. Suddenly I have ¾ of my gear for hell and it only took me a full 11hrs. So in half a day I am almost done for items I need for battle gear.
Helms
Shako* (P Topaz'd) - +2 All Skills, +2 All Attributes, Life and Mana, and 10% Damage Reduction, 74% MF.
TarnHelm (P Topaz'd) - +1 All Skills, 49-74% MF
Triple Socket Helm (3x P Topaz'd) - 72% MF
Random crappy MF circlet - 5-50 % MF
Weapon
Occy* (Ist'd) - +3 Skills, Resistances, Faster Cast Rate, Enhanced Defense, Vitality, Energy, 80% MF
Ali Baba - 1-99 %MF
Gull Dagger - 100% MF
Shield
Milabrega's Orb - 20% MF
Rhyme - (Shael+Eth Bone/Grim/Troll) - 25% MF, 25 All Resist, 15% Mana Regen, 60% Chance to block
Splendor - (Eth+Lum Bone/Grim/Troll) - +1 All Skills, 20% MF, +10% Faster Cast Rate, Regenerate Mana 15%, 40% Chance to block
Spirit Monarch* (ladder only) - +2 All Skills, Faster Cast Rate, Faster Hit Recovery, Resists, Magic Absorb
Armor
Tal Rasha* (P Topaz'd) - Cold/Light/Fire Resist 40%, 102% MF
Naj's Armor (Ith'd)- +1 Skills, all resist, 60% Damage taken goes to mana, life
Belt
Tal Rasha* - 10-15%MF, 37% Damage goes to mana
Goldwrap - 30% MF
Boots
War Travelers* - 30-50% MF
Random MF Boots - 5-35% MF
Gloves
Chance Guards* - 25-40% MF
Random MF Gloves 5-25% MF
Ammy
Tal Rasha* - +2 Sorc Skills
Random MF Ammy - 5-50% MF
Rings
Nagel* - 15-30% MF
Random MF RIng - 5-40% MF
Charms
Gheed’s Fortune* – 20-40% MF
*Suggested MF Setup for Hell Difficulty. Tal Rasha when 3 items combined mf becomes 65% for ammy totaling a possible 182% for the 3 set items.
Overall Lowest Possible Stats Using Required Hell Gear
Total MF 446
Without Anya Quest
Resists Fire Cold Light Poison
Nm 20 45 45 15
Hell -30 -5 28 -45
With Anya Quest
Resists Fire Cold Light Poison
Nm 50 75 75 45
Hell -10 25 58 -15
Defense 1606
Shiver 3012
Devilkin from Pit in Tamoe Highland
Chance to block 19%
Chance to get hit 50%
Life: 616
Mana: 559
Spell Info:
Frozen Orb - 399-419dmg length 36sec. Dmg is per spike orb has 40 spikes.
ThunderStorm – 136 sec duration, 479-841dmg
Chain Lightning – 3-586dmg at 7 hits
Meteor Damage – 4494-4708dmg with fire burn 990-1056dmg per sec for 19 secs
Fire Ball – 751-922dmg , explosion radius 1 yard
Shiver armor – 238sec duration, Defense boost 99%, 28-36dmg over 6 secs
Energy Shield – Duration 964sec, 65% Damage Redirect
Static Field – 9.3 yard radius
Baal Runs/Rushing/Key Runs
Helm
Shako* (Um'd) - +2 All Skills, +2 All Attributes, Life and Mana, and 10% Damage Reduction, 15 All Res.
Peasant Crown - +1 All skills, +20 Energy & Vitality, +8-12 Replenish Life
Weapon
Occy* - +3 Skills, Resistances, Faster Cast Rate, Enhanced Defense, Vitality, Energy, 50% MF
Random +2 sorc skill orb
Shield
Lidless* - +1 All Skills, Increase Max Mana, Faster Cast Rate
Spirit Monarch* (ladder only) - +2 All Skills, Faster Cast Rate, Faster Hit Recovery, Resists, Magic Absorb
Ancient's Pledge - +50% EDef, Cold Resist 43%, Fire, Light, Poison Resist 48%, 10% Damage Goes To Mana
Boots
Aldur's Boots*- 10% Damage taken goes to mana, Fire Resist
Random Hi Resistance Boots
Armor
Naj's Armor* (Ith'd)- +1 Skills, all resist, 60% Damage taken goes to mana, life
Heavenly Garb - Regenerate Mana 25%, All Resist 10, +15 Energy
Ammy
Tal's Amy*- +2 Skills, life and mana, light resist
Random* +2 Sorc Skills Amy
Saracen* or Prismatic Amy
Belt
Nightsmoke* (Up'd) - 50% Damage Taken goes to mana, 10 all resist, +20 Mana
Tal's Belt*- 37% Damage taken goes to mana, 10-15%MF, +30 mana
Rings
Dwarf Star*- 15% Fire Absorb
Raven Frost* - 20% Cold Absorb
Gloves
Magefist (Up'd)- +1 Fire Skills, Regen Mana, Faster Cast Rate, Defense=80
Suggested for Baal Runs
Wisp Projector - 10-20% Light Absob, 10-20% MF
Suggested for Nihalik Runs
Nature's Peace - Slain Monsters RIP
*Required to do hell difficulty well. Also 2 Tal Rasha set items = Replenish Life 10.
Your resistances will be fairly low so you will need a Perfect Diamond to put in lidless and you will want to get resistance charms. To upgrade items you need to use a Hordric Cube Recipe.
Overall Lowest Possible Stats Using Required Hell Gear
Without Anya Quest
Resists Fire Cold Light Poison
Nm 70 65 75 65
Hell 10 5 38 5
With Anya Quest
Resists Fire Cold Light Poison
Nm 75 75 75 75
Hell 40 35 68 35
Defense 1348
Shiver 2529
Devilkin from Pit in Tamoe Highland
Chance to block 18%
Chance to get hit 53%
Life: 751
Mana: 589
Spell Info:
Frozen Orb - 415-435dmg length 37sec. Dmg is per spike orb has 40 spikes.
ThunderStorm – 144 sec duration, 532-907dmg
Chain Lightning – 3-660dmg at 7 hits
Meteor Damage – 5233-5470dmg with fire burn 1126-1189dmg per sec for 19 secs
Fire Ball – 1037-1239dmg , explosion radius 1 yard
Shiver armor – 250sec duration, Defense boost 105%, 31-39dmg over 7 secs
Energy Shield – Duration 924sec, 67% Damage Redirect
Static Field – 10 yard radius
Additional Gear
This is gear that can make for an easier time and possibly more fun. It is in no way required though.
Call To Arms – This will help boost your health and mana it is a good edition to the mix. It will also help for with everything it is not needed per say but makes life easier.
Annihilus - This will help with resistances for sure and is always a great addition to any character.
Hellfire Torch – This will help with resistances also. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sorc torch or not it’s a great way to get some resists and if it’s a barb one lol that’s more for cta lol.
Fortitude (ladder) – El + Sol + Dol + Lo Bugged Eth 4os Archon Plate. This I think would be good but the loss of skill level and %Damage Taken Goes to Mana makes it Debatable.
Dream (ladder) – Io + Jah + Pul 3os Troll Nest This would be great in combination with Eschuta’s for Light damage.
Eschuta’s Temper (Light Facet) +1-3 Sorc Skills, +13-25% Light Damage, -3-5% enemy light resist
Griffon’s Eye (Light Facet) +1 All Skills, -18-25% Enemy Light Resist, 13-20% Light Skill Damage.
All Resist Crafted Caster ring - Magic Ring + Amn + P Amethyst + any jewel
Merc
My experiences with mercs is they die a lot. I supe them up and they die. I normally get act 2 defense aka defiance cause its better not to get hit and will help your merc out the most. I normally don’t use a merc but, they can be helpful at times. There are a lot of things you have to keep in mind when using a merc one of which is that they will use + Skills for there default aura. The skills have to be either from the same class or all skills. The reason for most of my equipment is resistances. I go above and beyond with them on my merc so that if I run into a conviction guy he still has pretty high resists. My normal setup for my merc if I use one is Eth Gaurdian Angel (Up’d & Um’d), Eth Kira’s Gaurdian (P Amethyst) and Insight Eth Thresher. Once the merc has reached level 87 I switch the p amethyst for a Um using a hel rune and scroll of tp. The reason for using the thresher is you can start to use it at an extremely low level because of its str requirements. When you go to up the Kira’s Gaurdian watch out for lvl req they will jump to 84 your merc has to be that high to handle it.
Overall Lowest Possible Stats Using My suggeted Hell Gear
90 All Resist and above 75 at a lvl 5 Conviction
Life - 1710
Strength -191
Dexterity -154
Dmg – 493 -2196
Defense - 3,154
+Defiance – 10,092
Items
Insight* (ladder) – Ral + Tir + Tal + Sol in Eth Thresher. Adds mediation aura.
Infinity (ladder) – Ber + Mal + Ber + Ist in Eth Thresher. Adds conviction aura.
Smoke – Nef + Lum in 2 os Eth Kraken Shell. Gives 50% All Resist.
Eth Guardian Angel* (Up’d & Um’d)- High Def, +15% to max resists, +1 Pally Skills.
Eth Rock stopper (Up’d) – 10% damage reduction. Resistances.
Eth Veil of Steel (-15% Req Jewel)– 50% All Resist
Eth Kira’s Guardian* (Um’d or P Amethyst) – 65-85% All Resist
Eth Blackhorns (Up’d) – 20 Light absorb
Eth Andariel’s Visage (Ral’d) - +2 Skills, 8-10% life steal, +20% ias
Reason for selected Hell Gear
I try to give myself a balance of everything. I get +10 to skills sure you can get more but, the more you get past this point you start to sacrifice other things like resistances for skill charms. Like I said this design is built around balance not just of skills but, also items. The reason for armor and belt is resistances/Damage to Mana/Defense. The armor was also picked because of the + 1 All Skills and the increased life. Getting an armor that has all of these things is very hard to do. It is also a rather cheap armor most people never want Naj’s Plate because the set is not used often and people try to get rid of it. The Nightsmoke belt is also extraordinarily cheap. The oculous is used mainly for the skills and resistances although the stat boosts are good. Shako is used for obvious reasons. Spirit is used for everything on it its all stuff you need and or are missing. The magefists are used for the fire skills, faster cast rate and mana regen. The Aldurs boots are used to round out the resistances, damage taken to mana, and the 50 to life. They are the only Item I could see replacing. A couple replacement boots are Silkweaves and Marrowwalk. This is because mana modifications on them.
Leveling
Leveling a build that is so spread out like this can be extraordinarily tricky so I am going to put down your leveling guide here. If you can try and get a hellforge hammer to use at lvl 1-15. Also grab any orbs or staves be greedy here people cause you are going to need it more so then any other builds while leveling.
Level 1-10
Levels 1-5 will be done in one game by going into a baal game clearing blood more till you find the den and then clearing the den. Save this 1 point till later I will tell you when to use it. After Level 5 join a Trist run game and party up and just follow the group and help kill what you can. All stat points go in Strength. This helps to build up your ability to wear armor and not get hit as easily. All Skill points go in Warmth. This will seem hurtful at first but you should use the starting staff and hit enemies with it.
Level 11
Stat points go into Strength. This will set you at 65 strength which is enough to get you through normal to baal runs. Skill Point Goes into Frost Nova. This allows you to slow enemies so they don't hit you and so party members can kill them. It also has a wide radius allowing you to keep them spaced out enough to escape from death.
Level 12
Stat points go into Vitality. Gives you the little more health you need for Tombs.
Skill point goes into Frozen Armor. This allows you to up your defense and get away from a guy cause he will freeze when he hits you.
Level 13
Stat points go into Energy. Now that you have started using spells you need mana.
Skill Point goes into Static. This gives you the ability to help drop gris and uniques life point helping out your party.
Level 14
Stat points go into Energy. Now that you have started using spells you need mana.
Skill point goes into Ice Bolt. We need to work our way to Shiver Armor.
Level 15
You are now don trist runs. Good for you, you now need to Kill Andy and Duriel. The best way to do this is make a game asking for help ex: Plz Help Act1-2. Most of the Time people are willing to help and if not join one where a bunch of people your level are doing it together. You are not going to be strong enough to kill them without help. Once you have done this join a tomb run game.
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into Ice Blast. This will allow you to freeze the uniques and stronger monsters so the melee people don’t receive as much damage in tombs.
Level 16
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into Shiver Armor. This will greatly beef up your defense allowing you not to get hit as much.
Level 17
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into telekinesis. This is so you can get teleport.
Level 18
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into teleport. This is so you can get away from enemies and so you don't have to deal with running out of stamina.
Level 19
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into glacial spike. This is on the way up the tree to frozen orb.
Level 20
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into charged bolt. This is a prereq for Energy Shield and Thunderstorm.
Level 21
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into lightning. This is a prereq for Energy Shield and Thunderstorm.
Level 22
Stat points go into Energy. You are going to need this for baal runs.
Skill point goes into chain lightning. This is a prereq for Energy Shield and Thunderstorm.
Level 23
Stat points go into Energy. You are going to need this for baal runs.
Skill point goes into nova. This is a prereq for Thunderstorm.
Level 24
Stat points go into Energy. You are going to need this for baal runs.
Skill point goes into Energy Shield. The skill point that we have been saving from den goes into Blizzard. This allows you to get an awesome damage spell for tombs/ancients/baal and a defensive spell for less damage to character and lowering your chances to die at ancients.
Level 25
You now need to do ancients. Once again you will need to make a game asking for help or join a game of similar level people trying to complete the quest.
Stat points go into Energy. You are going to need this for baal runs.
Skill point goes into Thunderstorm. This is an awesome spell that will help stun even lightning immune creatures before they can get to you adding to your protection for ancients.
Level 26
You now need to do baal runs until you hit level 45. You will need to join a game of similar level people trying to kill baal's minions. Remember always check quest log so that you do not kill baal in a game and get the quest before you are level 45 or you will have a really rough time trying to level.
Stat points go into Dexterity. You are going to need this for blocking with a shield and also for possibly wiz spike.
Skill point goes into fire bolt. It is a prereq for Meteor.
Level 27-29
You now need to do baal runs until you hit level 45. You will need to join a game of similar level people trying to kill baal's minions. Remember always check quest log so that you do not kill baal in a game and get the quest before you are level 45 or you will have a really rough time trying to level.
Stat points go into Dexterity. You are going to need this for blocking with a shield and also for possibly wiz spike.
Skill point leave unused.
Level 30
Stat points go into Dexterity. You are going to need this for blocking with a shield and also for possibly wiz spike.
Skill points that have been saved up now get put into frozen orb/cold mastery/light mastery.
Level 30-37
Stat points go into Dexterity. You are going to need this for blocking with a shield and also for possibly wiz spike.
Skill points go into frozen orb.
Level 37-44
Stat points go into Strength. This will help you wear heavier armor from nm.
Skill points go into frozen orb.
Level 45
You now need to find a baal for quest game. Kill baal for the quest. From there go into nm and join a baal game and ask for the wp and complete the quest in your own game and repeat until you have beaten nm. You can also look for games with like level players who are doing the same or you can make the plz help games although in nm you are less likely to get help as no one stays in nm very long.
Stat points go into Strength. This will help you wear heavier armor from nm.
Skill points go into frozen orb.
Level 46-50
You should have beaten ancients by now or you leveled up on your way to beat them. Once you have beaten ancients do baal runs until 65-75.
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into frozen orb.
Level 51
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Fire Mastery. This will help your fire spells you are now acquiring.
Level 52
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Inferno. It is a prereq for Meteor.
Level 52
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Blaze. It is a prereq for Meteor.
Level 53
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Firewall. It is a prereq for Meteor and a decent spell for fire damage for the time being.
Level 54
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Fireball. It is a prereq for Meteor.
Level 53-57
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Meteor.
Level 57-67
Stat points go into Strength. This will help get you ready for the spirit monarch.
Skill points go into Meteor.
Level 67
1 stat point into Strength and 4 stat points into health. This will complete the monarch strength requirement and start you on your health.
Skill points go into Meteor.
Level 68-73
Stat points go into Health. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Meteor.
Level 74-83
Stat points go into Health. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Fire Mastery.
Level 83-87
Acquire the rest of the skill quests.
Stat points go into Health. This will help you with your mana woes.
Add skills in this order 3 Energy Shield, 4 Thunderstorm, 9 Light Mastery.
Level 87-99
Focus on your weaknesses such as through fire mastery and light mastery. Stats use as you see fit. Light Mastery and Warmth are the 2 that help out the most at this point. Light mastery will help both chain lightning and thunderstorm.
Tips for playing this build type
When you go to use this character you want to make sure that you have thunderstorm, shiver armor, and energy shield up when you go to fight well at least the ones you have at the time up. The other thing you got to remember is you can use frozen orb to attract monsters even if immune to cold and to drop meteors behind you and run back past them and force the monster to walk through it as you drop more meteors on top of them. Continue this and you should only run into dual immunes. For dual cold/fire immune switch to chain lightning and make sure thunder storm is up. Static them if you can and between thunderstorm and chain lightning they shouldn't have a chance. Also dont forget you can drop meteors across water to hit things that you would normally need to teleport or cross a bridge to get too. This will keep you at a distance from them. Souls can be taken care of by teleporting and orbing and repeating that over and over. With this build you need to be light on your feet ready to move fast and teleport when needed. It is built to take hits and like it but, if they are ranged or too many u need to be able to get out of dodge. I have heard a lot about how frozen orb is weak part of this is because people don’t realize that the damage is per spike there are 40 spikes in frozen orb. Also if you get good at it you can have the last 20 explode inside a monster. This means you would be doing 20*415= 8300 cold damage and people say its weak hah.
MF Runs
For mf runs I normally do andy a lot more then meph. There is a lot of reasons behind this but basically because she has a higher chance to drop items people want. A perfect example is a shako. I normally get shakos from andy I rarely get shakos from meph it normally takes 100 runs and I get a shako or equiv helm like arreats, andariels visage, or vamp gaze. I also do pit runs quite often. Between these 2 I get the items I want normally very quickly. Another thing to consider is finding a super unique that is 20 higher in treasure class then what you are looking for. I do this because the treasure classes that are mid to ¾ drop the most during a run.
Rushing
For rushing you need to understand what you are weak in and you have to use a lot of common sense. You should not try and rush hell without the hell item setup as you probably wont be able to kill trav’s dual immune. Travincal is the hardest part of the rush normally speaking. For travincal I clear the righ side outside first then teleport inside and try and pull down the non cold immunes and kill them first. Trying to do this any other way normally results in death. You will want to leave the dual immune to last so you can properly handel him. In Act 4 mages will hurt you a lot try to dodge them it will remain this way till you get some high resistances via charms. Ancients are easy just keep moving. I recommend running in a circle around the arch at the top while orbing them it is normally good enough to get 1-2 of them and then the last1-2 you can drop meteors aon and have them run through the fire. This works well because of the way meteor is setup for burn damage instead of explode. I normally have the rushee down by the entrance as far away as possible basically.
Key Running
Countess- Meteor around the door way lure her minions into meteor burn. Then u can normally static run back and shoot chain lightning through the door way to kill her.
Summoner – Tele up by him and teleport back and forth at the half way points of the 2 walls with the symbols on them while orbing him. And if you can always hit the book it gives you a way to always get back.
Nihlathak – Without a natures peace ring you will need to meteor outside the range of the corpse explosion then lure his minions into the flames until there is 1-2 left then you can kill him. With the ring if you are good enough and the archers arnt there you can tele to a corner and meteor yourself until you get it down to 1-2 then kill him.
Baal Runs
For baal runs you need carrion wind for souls if not souls will probably kill you. You will need help killing stuff once you pass the 2 person mark so the other idiots better be able to kill stuff. If you try and do hell baal with 2+ ppl that cant kill anything listr is going to have you all over the place and you are going to need to go back up for pots like 30 times while everyone else dies and leaves.
Open Character
I linked an open character so you can try it out risk free and you don’t waste any of your time if you don’t like the build. I took a lot of time in preparing the open character as I had to make each item. All the equipment with the exception of the eschutas and cta, is bottom of the barrel. Meaning it is the worst possible outcome. I can kill ancients and dual immunes/Diablo with my hell setup without anything but, what I listed as hell gear and without the help of the anni or torch. I did both of these without dying once. Now mind you it is not easy as all hell but, you also have to realize you are playing with the worst of the worst item wise. It took a lot of time to get this character just right and so everything that should have durabilities does etc etc. Everything you have should give you an idea of what it takes to play the character and how strong she can be if you manage to get a lot of the good end game items.
Final Words
If you have anything to add don't be hesitant to even if it is negative. I would like to get other peoples points of view on this build but, if you do feel like commenting on skill structures I ask you try it at least in open battle net first. For it is much easier to make a character in open to test him then to spend hours of time to level in closed. Also If you are going to make comments please read the entire thing.
Intro
Firstly, I would like to state that Tri Sorcs are the do it alls of Hell. I use mine to do everything I need to get my other builds up and running. The only thing it cannot do as of yet is Ubers. I have been refining this build over the entire time I have played it works and has worked for 6 years. So yes this is a Tri Sorc build that works. Try it and see its awesome power. The items for this build will be cheap to get it up and running and more expensive towards the end. Another thing to note you will not be getting 1 hit kills in Hell so yes it takes time but, all in all I find it a hell of a lot more enjoyable. This build is also a PvM build. If you try to PvP with it there is a good chance you will die easily. The reason for this revision is mainly to answer questions of stats and how I can kill anything with such supposedly low damage. It was also done because of a lack of pertinent information and to give a better done open source character for trying the build out without taking a ton of time to do so.
A little education on how this build works
This build works off of a very fine balance of items spells and knowledge of how to use the sorceress. The main reason why this build works is because of %Damage goes to mana. The more of this you have the better off you actually are. Here is how Damage goes to mana works, "Nightsmoke: When combined with Sorceress' Energy Shield: The effects of Energy Shield are applied first, then the resulting damages are modified by
Nightsmoke. That ability doesn't change how much damage you take at all. It just calculates 50% of however much damage you took and gives you that much mana." So having a high energy shield is actually more detrimental and balancing the energy shield with damage goes to mana is the goal. You want to gain back the mana you lost and then some. You may or may not be able to gain all the mana back it depends on the items you are using, skills invested, etc. Using Naj’s Plate, (Ith’d), Nightsmoke (Up’d), and Aldur’s Boots you end up with 120% Damage taken goes to mana.
Next we take a look at the order things are applied in.
* Energy Shield: This is where the damage is redirected by Energy Shield and mana loss due to Energy Shield occurs.
* Damage Reduced by X/Magic Damage Reduced by X: The damage that is not redirected by Energy Shield is reduced by the appropriate amount and possibly nullified.
* Resistances: Resistances are applied. This phase does not just include the resistances listed in the character screen (Fire/Cold/Lightning/Poison) but also Magical damage and Physical damage (gained from equipment like Shaftstop). This phase is also where curses like Lower Resist, Amplify Damage and Decrepify are applied, as is Conviction.
* X% absorb: %-wise absorb is applied here. I won't go into details here, since we aim to avoid this phase.
* +X absorb: See above.
* Damage Goes to Mana: Mana is gained based on the amount of damage still left at this point.
* Ouch: Damage is applied to life.
* Mana Burn: Technically not part of the damage resolution, but part of the hit resolving that occurs after damage resolution. I mention it here to indicate that it will not take down Energy Shield before Energy Shield gets the chance to redirect the damage.
Everyone knows or should know that putting points into telekinesis lowers the mana taken by energy shield. Frankly we do not have the points to spare in order to do this.
Ok now the reasoning behind everything. This build is a balance of everything a sorc needs and wants along with a balance of burdens put on the sorc by certain spells. In order to reap the benefits you should follow this build to the letter. Everything
in this build supports another feature which supports another and another. If you choose to not follow the build pretty much to the letter it will fail. This build is like a house of cards. If you mess up the slightest bit in one area the entire house falls on top of itself.
Damage Taken Goes to Mana
This is something that most people do not know a whole lot about. Damage Taken Goes to Mana takes any non-poison melee damage left after normal midigation and does a straight multiplication across. So if you take 100 damage 33 gets through towards your health you lose the 33 health but, if you have 120% Damage Taken Goes to Mana you gain back 33*1.2= 39.6 mana. The amount of mana given back is not an extremely large amount but, it is enough to be able to give you enough for that one last spell to kill or enough to be able to teleport away. A lot of people feel that it is worthless and not worth it, I disagree completely I have been using it for sometime. When you are using a Tri Sorc the amount of mana you go through is insane. Also because of the amount of skills that are used and how spread out they are you do not have that ability to necessarily get what you need for certain things. A defense is one thing so what I do is I wear the Damage Taken Goes to Mana gear. This makes this disadvantage actually help me. Another disadvantage is it takes time to kill things so, if they are extra fast they will be on you sometimes faster then you can teleport. Most of the time the stygian dolls kill sorcs. This is because when you kill them they explode and most of the time when they do they are right next to you. Damage Taken Goes to Mana helps you with both of these mainly because you are surround and constantly being hit. This will give you the mana to teleport away normally twice. That can be enough to save your life and has many times for me.
The Math
This part gets extraordinarily tricky there is a lot that comes into play here. Simply put here is the formulas we need. Also % Damage taken goes to mana is only implemented in melee attacks.
Damage to life = InitialDamage*(W/100)*(1-X/100)*(1-Y/100)*(1-Z/100)
W = PvP penalty (for most, if not all attacks 17%)
X = % resistance (or damage reduction in case of a physical attack)
Y = % chance to block (in case of a physical attack or blockable elemental attack)
Z = % energy shield
Damage to mana = Damage*(2 – 0,0625x)*(W/100)
x = slvl telekinesis
W = pvp penalty
Damage to mana/Damage to life*100 = Amount of DmgToMana% needed to fully restore lost mana
Mana regen per second = 25 * [ [256 * MaxMana / 3000] * (100 + BaseRegenRateBonus) / 100] / 256.
Mana gained from DmgToMana%= Damage to life * (D/100)
D = % Damage Taken goes to Mana
Total Blocking = [(Blocking * (Dexterity - 15)) / (Character Level * 2)]
Chance of Potion Double Heal
Vitality: 100 - (10000 / Vitality)
Energy: Energy / 4
Working off what we have for information we start to fill in what we know. We will say the attack does 572 physical damage This is how much Lilith and Ãœber Mephisto do for melee damage aka most melee damage in the game. We will also say that you are using my hell setup for the calculation. 589 for mana pool is the absolute lowest if u finished the build and managed to get the worst of everything for the hell items.
Damage to life = 572*(1-0.10)*(1-0.40)*(1-.067) = 101.9304
Damage to mana = 572*(2-0.0625) = 1108.25
Amount of DmgToMana% for full recovery of mana = (1108.25/101.9304)*100 = 1087.26
Mana Gained back from DmgToMana% = (101.9304)*(1.2) = 122.31648
Mana regen per second = 25*[ ( 256*589/3000)*(100+295)/100 ] /256 = 19.39
Total Blocking = [ (42*(92-15)) / (87*2) ] = 18.59
Chance of Potion Double Heal Health = 100 – (10000/198) = 49.5%
Chance of Potion Double Heal Mana = 152 / 4 = 38%
Spell Reasoning
The reason why the points in Shiver Armor, Thunder Storm, and Energy Shield are the way they are is strictly for the amount of time they stay up. Energy Shield is also done for the balance of %Damage goes to Mana and Energy Shield. Fire Mastery over Fire
Ball synergy the reasoning behind this is you will not have enough points to get the explosion high enough to 1 shot things. Along with that if you use the burn time like a firewall and stand there while you drop meteors on their heads. You can take a couple of hits because of the %Damage goes to Mana. Also you can light a trail up and lure them into the trail causing alot of damage. Meph also dies faster when you use the Corner of the Screen trick. The burn time will amount to a larger number then that of the immediate strike of the meteor. Frozen Orb needs only 1 point in cold mastery everything you wear will add to it. Meteor and Orb are at 20 because they are your default damage skills. Frozen orb will slow them while you drop meteors on their heads. It is a tried and true setup. The difference now is you get that added damage from thunderstorm. Along with that the lightning mastery will add up to enough damage you can take down Dual Immune Fire/Cold Monsters. The dual immunes leads to the reason why use thunderstorm. First of all you are a Tri Sorc damage is spread out all over the trees so you want to get in as much damage as you can. By having thunderstorm up you get both the damage from that and the damage from chain lightning which you use in combination with static field to kill dual immunes. It will take a while but, you will be able to kill them. A down side though is if there is too many people in the game it may regen faster then you can kill him. The Reason why I use masteries is because most of the synergies take a lot of points and also because the masteries improve damage through out the tree of skills. This allows me to be able to use chain lightning with only 1 pt in it and have it do 1 to about 500 dmg. With this build it is soo spread out it causes you to have to use masteries.
Uses
Key Runner
Rusher
MF
Baal Runner
How the Setup Works
Main Attack
Frozen Orb
Meteor
Defense
Energy Shield
Shiver Armor
Teleport
Alt Attack
Thunderstorm
Chain Light
Static Field
Skill Distribution
Cold Skills
1 Ice Bolt
1 Ice Blast
1 Glacial Spike - Prerequisites for Frozen Orb
1 Frost Nova
1 Blizzard
1 Frozen Armor - Prerequisite for Shiver Armor
1 Shiver Armor
1 Cold Mastery
20 Frozen Orb
Fire Skills
1 Fire Bolt
1 Fire Ball
1 Inferno - Prerequisites for Meteor
1 Blaze
1 Fire Wall
10 Warmth
10 Fire Mastery
20 Meteor
Light Skills
1 Static Field
1 Nova
1 Telekinesis
1 Light Bolt - Prerequisites for Thunder Storm + Energy Shield
1 Teleport
1 Lightning
1 Chain Light
5 Thunder Storm
4 Energy Shield
10 Light Mastery
Total Skill Points 99
Skill Quests -12
Actual Level =87
Stats
Strength 156
You are a Sorc not a melee person you do not need hi strength. The reason it is even this high is so you can use a spirit monarch in ladder.
Dexterity 75
This is for Wizardspike primarily. It also increases chance to block a little bit.
Energy 130
The reason I did not go higher for this is because of the fact the more health you have the better and I don't lose a lot of mana because of damage goes to mana. Also because of Warmth and mana regenerate items.
Vitality 150+
Put everything you have left into vitality the more health you have the less you have to worry about it. Plus if you get poisoned it helps to have time to hit pots. You also need this high health to allow you to take hits for damage goes to mana to work.
Equipment
The things to look for:
+ Skills
% Increase Maximum Mana
% Damage taken goes to Mana
Some stuff is expensive but, not everything hear is needed. Everything here has been picked out with careful consideration. Anytime you are doing MFing you want to try and have around 50 % damage goes to mana or higher. If you don't its going to be much
harder to play.
MF Setup
Starting out sell crap items from baal runs and look at Larzuk for MF Items each run and also ask for a nightsmoke it drops fairly often and you can get it cheap if not for free. This will help you get some crappy MF items to help start you on your way. Also pick up every ring and amy people will drop crappy ones. Transmute them in your cube till you get rings and ammys you want. Remember 3 ammys=1 ring and 3 rings = 1 ammy. Normally I do this all the way through the entire time I'm leveling. By the time I hit Nightmare I normally have 20-30% MF rings and ammys. Your Defense will not be a problem as you will be doing meph runs in NM to start using the moat trick example video. On top of that remember you have Shiver armor it will boost your defense so don't worry. You are also not going to want to MF till you get to Nightmare it will be a waste of time otherwise. Once in NM MF for an occy it normally doesn’t take more then 100 runs about 3 hrs. Once you have an occy you should be able to MF Meph inhell. I do this till I get something worth Naj’s armor. Once I get Najs armor and I have nightsmoke I MF andy for about 200 runs 4-5hrs. This normally produces a shako. Then once I have that I do NM countess runs and get the runes for Spirit and an ith takes about an 1hr. Once I have the runes I do mosoleum, next to blood raven, runs in hell and mf there while I hit the armor and weapon shrines. This normally produces a monarch and a flail in about 100 runs aka 1hr. I then go to normal and get the larzuk socket quest and use it on my monarch. Because the larzuk quest he adds the maximum number of sockets possible. You end up with a 40s monarch that u can make a spirit. Then do the same for nm and do it to your shako. This will be easy. Then I do Larzuk in hell add the socket to my armor and ith it. Suddenly I have ¾ of my gear for hell and it only took me a full 11hrs. So in half a day I am almost done for items I need for battle gear.
Helms
Shako* (P Topaz'd) - +2 All Skills, +2 All Attributes, Life and Mana, and 10% Damage Reduction, 74% MF.
TarnHelm (P Topaz'd) - +1 All Skills, 49-74% MF
Triple Socket Helm (3x P Topaz'd) - 72% MF
Random crappy MF circlet - 5-50 % MF
Weapon
Occy* (Ist'd) - +3 Skills, Resistances, Faster Cast Rate, Enhanced Defense, Vitality, Energy, 80% MF
Ali Baba - 1-99 %MF
Gull Dagger - 100% MF
Shield
Milabrega's Orb - 20% MF
Rhyme - (Shael+Eth Bone/Grim/Troll) - 25% MF, 25 All Resist, 15% Mana Regen, 60% Chance to block
Splendor - (Eth+Lum Bone/Grim/Troll) - +1 All Skills, 20% MF, +10% Faster Cast Rate, Regenerate Mana 15%, 40% Chance to block
Spirit Monarch* (ladder only) - +2 All Skills, Faster Cast Rate, Faster Hit Recovery, Resists, Magic Absorb
Armor
Tal Rasha* (P Topaz'd) - Cold/Light/Fire Resist 40%, 102% MF
Naj's Armor (Ith'd)- +1 Skills, all resist, 60% Damage taken goes to mana, life
Belt
Tal Rasha* - 10-15%MF, 37% Damage goes to mana
Goldwrap - 30% MF
Boots
War Travelers* - 30-50% MF
Random MF Boots - 5-35% MF
Gloves
Chance Guards* - 25-40% MF
Random MF Gloves 5-25% MF
Ammy
Tal Rasha* - +2 Sorc Skills
Random MF Ammy - 5-50% MF
Rings
Nagel* - 15-30% MF
Random MF RIng - 5-40% MF
Charms
Gheed’s Fortune* – 20-40% MF
*Suggested MF Setup for Hell Difficulty. Tal Rasha when 3 items combined mf becomes 65% for ammy totaling a possible 182% for the 3 set items.
Overall Lowest Possible Stats Using Required Hell Gear
Total MF 446
Without Anya Quest
Resists Fire Cold Light Poison
Nm 20 45 45 15
Hell -30 -5 28 -45
With Anya Quest
Resists Fire Cold Light Poison
Nm 50 75 75 45
Hell -10 25 58 -15
Defense 1606
Shiver 3012
Devilkin from Pit in Tamoe Highland
Chance to block 19%
Chance to get hit 50%
Life: 616
Mana: 559
Spell Info:
Frozen Orb - 399-419dmg length 36sec. Dmg is per spike orb has 40 spikes.
ThunderStorm – 136 sec duration, 479-841dmg
Chain Lightning – 3-586dmg at 7 hits
Meteor Damage – 4494-4708dmg with fire burn 990-1056dmg per sec for 19 secs
Fire Ball – 751-922dmg , explosion radius 1 yard
Shiver armor – 238sec duration, Defense boost 99%, 28-36dmg over 6 secs
Energy Shield – Duration 964sec, 65% Damage Redirect
Static Field – 9.3 yard radius
Baal Runs/Rushing/Key Runs
Helm
Shako* (Um'd) - +2 All Skills, +2 All Attributes, Life and Mana, and 10% Damage Reduction, 15 All Res.
Peasant Crown - +1 All skills, +20 Energy & Vitality, +8-12 Replenish Life
Weapon
Occy* - +3 Skills, Resistances, Faster Cast Rate, Enhanced Defense, Vitality, Energy, 50% MF
Random +2 sorc skill orb
Shield
Lidless* - +1 All Skills, Increase Max Mana, Faster Cast Rate
Spirit Monarch* (ladder only) - +2 All Skills, Faster Cast Rate, Faster Hit Recovery, Resists, Magic Absorb
Ancient's Pledge - +50% EDef, Cold Resist 43%, Fire, Light, Poison Resist 48%, 10% Damage Goes To Mana
Boots
Aldur's Boots*- 10% Damage taken goes to mana, Fire Resist
Random Hi Resistance Boots
Armor
Naj's Armor* (Ith'd)- +1 Skills, all resist, 60% Damage taken goes to mana, life
Heavenly Garb - Regenerate Mana 25%, All Resist 10, +15 Energy
Ammy
Tal's Amy*- +2 Skills, life and mana, light resist
Random* +2 Sorc Skills Amy
Saracen* or Prismatic Amy
Belt
Nightsmoke* (Up'd) - 50% Damage Taken goes to mana, 10 all resist, +20 Mana
Tal's Belt*- 37% Damage taken goes to mana, 10-15%MF, +30 mana
Rings
Dwarf Star*- 15% Fire Absorb
Raven Frost* - 20% Cold Absorb
Gloves
Magefist (Up'd)- +1 Fire Skills, Regen Mana, Faster Cast Rate, Defense=80
Suggested for Baal Runs
Wisp Projector - 10-20% Light Absob, 10-20% MF
Suggested for Nihalik Runs
Nature's Peace - Slain Monsters RIP
*Required to do hell difficulty well. Also 2 Tal Rasha set items = Replenish Life 10.
Your resistances will be fairly low so you will need a Perfect Diamond to put in lidless and you will want to get resistance charms. To upgrade items you need to use a Hordric Cube Recipe.
Overall Lowest Possible Stats Using Required Hell Gear
Without Anya Quest
Resists Fire Cold Light Poison
Nm 70 65 75 65
Hell 10 5 38 5
With Anya Quest
Resists Fire Cold Light Poison
Nm 75 75 75 75
Hell 40 35 68 35
Defense 1348
Shiver 2529
Devilkin from Pit in Tamoe Highland
Chance to block 18%
Chance to get hit 53%
Life: 751
Mana: 589
Spell Info:
Frozen Orb - 415-435dmg length 37sec. Dmg is per spike orb has 40 spikes.
ThunderStorm – 144 sec duration, 532-907dmg
Chain Lightning – 3-660dmg at 7 hits
Meteor Damage – 5233-5470dmg with fire burn 1126-1189dmg per sec for 19 secs
Fire Ball – 1037-1239dmg , explosion radius 1 yard
Shiver armor – 250sec duration, Defense boost 105%, 31-39dmg over 7 secs
Energy Shield – Duration 924sec, 67% Damage Redirect
Static Field – 10 yard radius
Additional Gear
This is gear that can make for an easier time and possibly more fun. It is in no way required though.
Call To Arms – This will help boost your health and mana it is a good edition to the mix. It will also help for with everything it is not needed per say but makes life easier.
Annihilus - This will help with resistances for sure and is always a great addition to any character.
Hellfire Torch – This will help with resistances also. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sorc torch or not it’s a great way to get some resists and if it’s a barb one lol that’s more for cta lol.
Fortitude (ladder) – El + Sol + Dol + Lo Bugged Eth 4os Archon Plate. This I think would be good but the loss of skill level and %Damage Taken Goes to Mana makes it Debatable.
Dream (ladder) – Io + Jah + Pul 3os Troll Nest This would be great in combination with Eschuta’s for Light damage.
Eschuta’s Temper (Light Facet) +1-3 Sorc Skills, +13-25% Light Damage, -3-5% enemy light resist
Griffon’s Eye (Light Facet) +1 All Skills, -18-25% Enemy Light Resist, 13-20% Light Skill Damage.
All Resist Crafted Caster ring - Magic Ring + Amn + P Amethyst + any jewel
Merc
My experiences with mercs is they die a lot. I supe them up and they die. I normally get act 2 defense aka defiance cause its better not to get hit and will help your merc out the most. I normally don’t use a merc but, they can be helpful at times. There are a lot of things you have to keep in mind when using a merc one of which is that they will use + Skills for there default aura. The skills have to be either from the same class or all skills. The reason for most of my equipment is resistances. I go above and beyond with them on my merc so that if I run into a conviction guy he still has pretty high resists. My normal setup for my merc if I use one is Eth Gaurdian Angel (Up’d & Um’d), Eth Kira’s Gaurdian (P Amethyst) and Insight Eth Thresher. Once the merc has reached level 87 I switch the p amethyst for a Um using a hel rune and scroll of tp. The reason for using the thresher is you can start to use it at an extremely low level because of its str requirements. When you go to up the Kira’s Gaurdian watch out for lvl req they will jump to 84 your merc has to be that high to handle it.
Overall Lowest Possible Stats Using My suggeted Hell Gear
90 All Resist and above 75 at a lvl 5 Conviction
Life - 1710
Strength -191
Dexterity -154
Dmg – 493 -2196
Defense - 3,154
+Defiance – 10,092
Items
Insight* (ladder) – Ral + Tir + Tal + Sol in Eth Thresher. Adds mediation aura.
Infinity (ladder) – Ber + Mal + Ber + Ist in Eth Thresher. Adds conviction aura.
Smoke – Nef + Lum in 2 os Eth Kraken Shell. Gives 50% All Resist.
Eth Guardian Angel* (Up’d & Um’d)- High Def, +15% to max resists, +1 Pally Skills.
Eth Rock stopper (Up’d) – 10% damage reduction. Resistances.
Eth Veil of Steel (-15% Req Jewel)– 50% All Resist
Eth Kira’s Guardian* (Um’d or P Amethyst) – 65-85% All Resist
Eth Blackhorns (Up’d) – 20 Light absorb
Eth Andariel’s Visage (Ral’d) - +2 Skills, 8-10% life steal, +20% ias
Reason for selected Hell Gear
I try to give myself a balance of everything. I get +10 to skills sure you can get more but, the more you get past this point you start to sacrifice other things like resistances for skill charms. Like I said this design is built around balance not just of skills but, also items. The reason for armor and belt is resistances/Damage to Mana/Defense. The armor was also picked because of the + 1 All Skills and the increased life. Getting an armor that has all of these things is very hard to do. It is also a rather cheap armor most people never want Naj’s Plate because the set is not used often and people try to get rid of it. The Nightsmoke belt is also extraordinarily cheap. The oculous is used mainly for the skills and resistances although the stat boosts are good. Shako is used for obvious reasons. Spirit is used for everything on it its all stuff you need and or are missing. The magefists are used for the fire skills, faster cast rate and mana regen. The Aldurs boots are used to round out the resistances, damage taken to mana, and the 50 to life. They are the only Item I could see replacing. A couple replacement boots are Silkweaves and Marrowwalk. This is because mana modifications on them.
Leveling
Leveling a build that is so spread out like this can be extraordinarily tricky so I am going to put down your leveling guide here. If you can try and get a hellforge hammer to use at lvl 1-15. Also grab any orbs or staves be greedy here people cause you are going to need it more so then any other builds while leveling.
Level 1-10
Levels 1-5 will be done in one game by going into a baal game clearing blood more till you find the den and then clearing the den. Save this 1 point till later I will tell you when to use it. After Level 5 join a Trist run game and party up and just follow the group and help kill what you can. All stat points go in Strength. This helps to build up your ability to wear armor and not get hit as easily. All Skill points go in Warmth. This will seem hurtful at first but you should use the starting staff and hit enemies with it.
Level 11
Stat points go into Strength. This will set you at 65 strength which is enough to get you through normal to baal runs. Skill Point Goes into Frost Nova. This allows you to slow enemies so they don't hit you and so party members can kill them. It also has a wide radius allowing you to keep them spaced out enough to escape from death.
Level 12
Stat points go into Vitality. Gives you the little more health you need for Tombs.
Skill point goes into Frozen Armor. This allows you to up your defense and get away from a guy cause he will freeze when he hits you.
Level 13
Stat points go into Energy. Now that you have started using spells you need mana.
Skill Point goes into Static. This gives you the ability to help drop gris and uniques life point helping out your party.
Level 14
Stat points go into Energy. Now that you have started using spells you need mana.
Skill point goes into Ice Bolt. We need to work our way to Shiver Armor.
Level 15
You are now don trist runs. Good for you, you now need to Kill Andy and Duriel. The best way to do this is make a game asking for help ex: Plz Help Act1-2. Most of the Time people are willing to help and if not join one where a bunch of people your level are doing it together. You are not going to be strong enough to kill them without help. Once you have done this join a tomb run game.
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into Ice Blast. This will allow you to freeze the uniques and stronger monsters so the melee people don’t receive as much damage in tombs.
Level 16
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into Shiver Armor. This will greatly beef up your defense allowing you not to get hit as much.
Level 17
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into telekinesis. This is so you can get teleport.
Level 18
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into teleport. This is so you can get away from enemies and so you don't have to deal with running out of stamina.
Level 19
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into glacial spike. This is on the way up the tree to frozen orb.
Level 20
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into charged bolt. This is a prereq for Energy Shield and Thunderstorm.
Level 21
Stat points go into Vitality. You are going to need more health in tombs because of poison.
Skill point goes into lightning. This is a prereq for Energy Shield and Thunderstorm.
Level 22
Stat points go into Energy. You are going to need this for baal runs.
Skill point goes into chain lightning. This is a prereq for Energy Shield and Thunderstorm.
Level 23
Stat points go into Energy. You are going to need this for baal runs.
Skill point goes into nova. This is a prereq for Thunderstorm.
Level 24
Stat points go into Energy. You are going to need this for baal runs.
Skill point goes into Energy Shield. The skill point that we have been saving from den goes into Blizzard. This allows you to get an awesome damage spell for tombs/ancients/baal and a defensive spell for less damage to character and lowering your chances to die at ancients.
Level 25
You now need to do ancients. Once again you will need to make a game asking for help or join a game of similar level people trying to complete the quest.
Stat points go into Energy. You are going to need this for baal runs.
Skill point goes into Thunderstorm. This is an awesome spell that will help stun even lightning immune creatures before they can get to you adding to your protection for ancients.
Level 26
You now need to do baal runs until you hit level 45. You will need to join a game of similar level people trying to kill baal's minions. Remember always check quest log so that you do not kill baal in a game and get the quest before you are level 45 or you will have a really rough time trying to level.
Stat points go into Dexterity. You are going to need this for blocking with a shield and also for possibly wiz spike.
Skill point goes into fire bolt. It is a prereq for Meteor.
Level 27-29
You now need to do baal runs until you hit level 45. You will need to join a game of similar level people trying to kill baal's minions. Remember always check quest log so that you do not kill baal in a game and get the quest before you are level 45 or you will have a really rough time trying to level.
Stat points go into Dexterity. You are going to need this for blocking with a shield and also for possibly wiz spike.
Skill point leave unused.
Level 30
Stat points go into Dexterity. You are going to need this for blocking with a shield and also for possibly wiz spike.
Skill points that have been saved up now get put into frozen orb/cold mastery/light mastery.
Level 30-37
Stat points go into Dexterity. You are going to need this for blocking with a shield and also for possibly wiz spike.
Skill points go into frozen orb.
Level 37-44
Stat points go into Strength. This will help you wear heavier armor from nm.
Skill points go into frozen orb.
Level 45
You now need to find a baal for quest game. Kill baal for the quest. From there go into nm and join a baal game and ask for the wp and complete the quest in your own game and repeat until you have beaten nm. You can also look for games with like level players who are doing the same or you can make the plz help games although in nm you are less likely to get help as no one stays in nm very long.
Stat points go into Strength. This will help you wear heavier armor from nm.
Skill points go into frozen orb.
Level 46-50
You should have beaten ancients by now or you leveled up on your way to beat them. Once you have beaten ancients do baal runs until 65-75.
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into frozen orb.
Level 51
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Fire Mastery. This will help your fire spells you are now acquiring.
Level 52
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Inferno. It is a prereq for Meteor.
Level 52
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Blaze. It is a prereq for Meteor.
Level 53
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Firewall. It is a prereq for Meteor and a decent spell for fire damage for the time being.
Level 54
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Fireball. It is a prereq for Meteor.
Level 53-57
Stat points go into Energy. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Meteor.
Level 57-67
Stat points go into Strength. This will help get you ready for the spirit monarch.
Skill points go into Meteor.
Level 67
1 stat point into Strength and 4 stat points into health. This will complete the monarch strength requirement and start you on your health.
Skill points go into Meteor.
Level 68-73
Stat points go into Health. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Meteor.
Level 74-83
Stat points go into Health. This will help you with your mana woes.
Skill points go into Fire Mastery.
Level 83-87
Acquire the rest of the skill quests.
Stat points go into Health. This will help you with your mana woes.
Add skills in this order 3 Energy Shield, 4 Thunderstorm, 9 Light Mastery.
Level 87-99
Focus on your weaknesses such as through fire mastery and light mastery. Stats use as you see fit. Light Mastery and Warmth are the 2 that help out the most at this point. Light mastery will help both chain lightning and thunderstorm.
Tips for playing this build type
When you go to use this character you want to make sure that you have thunderstorm, shiver armor, and energy shield up when you go to fight well at least the ones you have at the time up. The other thing you got to remember is you can use frozen orb to attract monsters even if immune to cold and to drop meteors behind you and run back past them and force the monster to walk through it as you drop more meteors on top of them. Continue this and you should only run into dual immunes. For dual cold/fire immune switch to chain lightning and make sure thunder storm is up. Static them if you can and between thunderstorm and chain lightning they shouldn't have a chance. Also dont forget you can drop meteors across water to hit things that you would normally need to teleport or cross a bridge to get too. This will keep you at a distance from them. Souls can be taken care of by teleporting and orbing and repeating that over and over. With this build you need to be light on your feet ready to move fast and teleport when needed. It is built to take hits and like it but, if they are ranged or too many u need to be able to get out of dodge. I have heard a lot about how frozen orb is weak part of this is because people don’t realize that the damage is per spike there are 40 spikes in frozen orb. Also if you get good at it you can have the last 20 explode inside a monster. This means you would be doing 20*415= 8300 cold damage and people say its weak hah.
MF Runs
For mf runs I normally do andy a lot more then meph. There is a lot of reasons behind this but basically because she has a higher chance to drop items people want. A perfect example is a shako. I normally get shakos from andy I rarely get shakos from meph it normally takes 100 runs and I get a shako or equiv helm like arreats, andariels visage, or vamp gaze. I also do pit runs quite often. Between these 2 I get the items I want normally very quickly. Another thing to consider is finding a super unique that is 20 higher in treasure class then what you are looking for. I do this because the treasure classes that are mid to ¾ drop the most during a run.
Rushing
For rushing you need to understand what you are weak in and you have to use a lot of common sense. You should not try and rush hell without the hell item setup as you probably wont be able to kill trav’s dual immune. Travincal is the hardest part of the rush normally speaking. For travincal I clear the righ side outside first then teleport inside and try and pull down the non cold immunes and kill them first. Trying to do this any other way normally results in death. You will want to leave the dual immune to last so you can properly handel him. In Act 4 mages will hurt you a lot try to dodge them it will remain this way till you get some high resistances via charms. Ancients are easy just keep moving. I recommend running in a circle around the arch at the top while orbing them it is normally good enough to get 1-2 of them and then the last1-2 you can drop meteors aon and have them run through the fire. This works well because of the way meteor is setup for burn damage instead of explode. I normally have the rushee down by the entrance as far away as possible basically.
Key Running
Countess- Meteor around the door way lure her minions into meteor burn. Then u can normally static run back and shoot chain lightning through the door way to kill her.
Summoner – Tele up by him and teleport back and forth at the half way points of the 2 walls with the symbols on them while orbing him. And if you can always hit the book it gives you a way to always get back.
Nihlathak – Without a natures peace ring you will need to meteor outside the range of the corpse explosion then lure his minions into the flames until there is 1-2 left then you can kill him. With the ring if you are good enough and the archers arnt there you can tele to a corner and meteor yourself until you get it down to 1-2 then kill him.
Baal Runs
For baal runs you need carrion wind for souls if not souls will probably kill you. You will need help killing stuff once you pass the 2 person mark so the other idiots better be able to kill stuff. If you try and do hell baal with 2+ ppl that cant kill anything listr is going to have you all over the place and you are going to need to go back up for pots like 30 times while everyone else dies and leaves.
Open Character
I linked an open character so you can try it out risk free and you don’t waste any of your time if you don’t like the build. I took a lot of time in preparing the open character as I had to make each item. All the equipment with the exception of the eschutas and cta, is bottom of the barrel. Meaning it is the worst possible outcome. I can kill ancients and dual immunes/Diablo with my hell setup without anything but, what I listed as hell gear and without the help of the anni or torch. I did both of these without dying once. Now mind you it is not easy as all hell but, you also have to realize you are playing with the worst of the worst item wise. It took a lot of time to get this character just right and so everything that should have durabilities does etc etc. Everything you have should give you an idea of what it takes to play the character and how strong she can be if you manage to get a lot of the good end game items.
Final Words
If you have anything to add don't be hesitant to even if it is negative. I would like to get other peoples points of view on this build but, if you do feel like commenting on skill structures I ask you try it at least in open battle net first. For it is much easier to make a character in open to test him then to spend hours of time to level in closed. Also If you are going to make comments please read the entire thing.