Ultimate enchantress guide v2.00
The Ultimate Enchantress Guide V2.00
Preface:
Since no one including myself has my old guide(V1.00?), I have to rewrite the whole thing again. Any inputs / ideas welcomed. Since I typed this out in a short period, if there's any mistakes, or any part unclear / doesn't make sense, let me know. Thanks
Note: If you think you have basic knowledge about enchantress, just go straight to the section you are interested in. Else, I recommand you to read the whole thing. It's worth the time.
Table of contents:
Basic Knowledge stage:
1) Introduction
2) Everything you need to know about enchant
3) Skills description (including a section about Damage goes to mana, ES, and Telekinesis. Also a brief description about werebear)
Character developing stage
4) Skills (compare ZEAL enchantress to Bear enchantress, melee to ranged enchantress)
5) Stats and Equipment
6) Merc
Game Play stage
7) Leveling, pvm, untwinked character
8) PVP (including a section about bear enchantress vs. fire claw druid)
9) Cool pvp ideas. (keep it as a secret for now..)
1) INTRODUCTION:
Enchantress is a sorc build centered around the skill "enchant". All enchantress must (in my opinion) max Warmth , Enchant , and Fire Mastery. Those who don't max these three skills might be called melee sorc, bow sorc - but not enchantress. I'll dicuss the reason why later.
Enchantress is a type of sorc that is capable of something most other sorcs builds are not capable of, that is, the ability to melee or attack with bow efficiently. Basically, enchantress relay heavily on the huge Fire damage and high Attack Rating bonus enchant grants.
With an enchantress you can do at least the following:
Melee with 16k + fire damage easily at a good speed
Shoots out explosive arrow / guided arrow carrying 4k + fire damage
Grant your party member nice fire damage and AR ( hence works great party pvp, and power leveling your friend's low lvl character)
Other ability depends on how you want to build it. (The three important skills will be maxed with just 62 skill points, so people can build different enchantress based on their need).
2) EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ENCHANT
2A) How enchant damage is calculated
When you cast enchant, look at the skill tab where it says skill level is xx and enchant adds xxxx ~xxxx damage, let's refer to the xxxx ~ xxxx damage as the Cast Time Damage. When you perform melee attack, enchant adds the Cast Time Damage multiplied by current Fire Mastery bonus (the fire mastery level at the time of attacking). When you perform ranged attack using a bow, enchant only adds the Cast Time Damage itself to your attack.
Example: If your skill tab says enchant grants 4000 damage and your fire mastery gives + 300%. Then when you melee, you deal out 4000 x (100% + 300%) fire damage which is 16000. Where as when you attack with bow, only 4000 fire damage is dealt. Then, you decide to remove a fire skill charm. So fire mastery level now drops by 1, bonus drops by 7%. You new melee fire damage becomes 4000 x (100% + 293%) = 15720, and new ranged fire damage stays the same at 4000.
Note: The character information screen gives you the correct melee damage. But it gives you faulty ranged attack damage. Don't be fooled by the number.
2B) Enchant is a prebuffable skill.
Knowing how enchant damage works, we should try to get the Cast Time enchange Damage as high as possible when you cast it. And the easiest/ most effective way is to raise skill level. It is important to note that, enchant has increasing gain at high level, which can be observed using a skill planner. You can see the damage difference between a level 45 and level 46 enchant is bigger than that between a level 5 and level 10 enchant.
So what's good prebuff gear? (the equipment you should wear when you cast enchant)
Here's a list that everyone should try to aim for
10 Fire skill Charms
1 Annihilus small charm
Helm: + 3 fire skill circlet (socket it with 2 x + 5 % fire facets)
Ammy: + 3 fire skill ammy
Armor: +3 enchant Omus' Robe with +15% fire damage (socket it with + 5 % fire facet)
Belt: Aranchid Mesh (+ 1 all skill)
Rings: + 1 skill rings (SOJ, bul katho..)
Gloves: Magefist
Boots: Doesn't matter
Now Best weapon / Shield combination
+ 3 fire skill sorc orb with + 3 enchant, + 3 fire mastery socketed with 2 fire facetes, + 1 skill shield with fire facet.
This will result in level 51 enchant, level 48 fire mastery, with 6 fire facets
The Cast Time Damage will be about 4840~5575
Melee fire damage is about 24400~ 28070, where as ranged fire damage is same as Cast Time Damage.
2nd Best weapon/ shield combo
"Leaf" runeword staff with + 3 enchant, + 3 fire mastery
Cast Time Damage is about 4500~5190
3rd Best weaopn/ shield combo
Eschuta;s Templer with + 3 sorc + 20% fire socketed with 1 fire facet, 1 skill shield with fire facet.
Cast Time Damage is about 4370~5050
4th place
Mang Song's Lesson with 1 fire facet
Cast Time Damage is about 4355~5025
You get the idea..
2C) Who / When to cast enchant on
You can enchant on yourself anytime, but you can only enchant your party member if at least one person ( you or the party member) is outside of town. You can enchant on minions, (necro's , druid's , assisents', zon's...), you can enchant on Mercenary. Unless you enchant on a sorc with fire mastery, otherwise, what they'll get is the AR bonus and the Cast Time Damage when they do melee/ ranged attack. You should enchant on every non caster character in your party if possible.
2D) Chracters take the higest level Enchant
That is, when you enchant someone with a level 30 enchant first, then enchant with level 35, the level 35 will replaces old one. If you cast same level enchant, it reset the timer. If you cast lower level enchant, it doesn't do anything. =]
2E) How does enchant works with Explosive Arrow?
When you fire out an explosive arrow against someone, there's this possibility to hit the target twice. First is the arrow itself. If it passes the defense and block, it will hit. And the damage is the physical damage + enchant damage + any other sources of damage it carries. The second hit is the explosion. If target is in range, it will always hit ignoring target defense ( zons can dodge though, I think). The explosion damage is the fire damage you have, usually about the same as Cast Time Damage. Since there are two hitting checks, it is possible to put target opponent in block / fhr lock.
2F) The concept about fire mastery "Double Boosting"
Some people say it's a feature, some say it's a bug.. I think it's just normal and makes total sense.
Firstly, we know that Mastery (fire, lightening) boost elemental damage when sorcs melee. That is, fire (lightening) mastery will multiply any added fire (lightening) damage from charms, equipments when sorc melee.
Now, since enchant is a fire skill, it gets multiplied by fire mastery. And what does enchant do? It adds fire damage to the weapon. You can consider enchant as having an invisible charm that adds fire damage. Then when you melee, that fire damage from the invisible charm (enchant) is multiplied again just like any other fire damage charms would. So it makes total sense to me. And it explains why enchant is not multiplied when you go ranged. (because mastery doesn't boost the added elemental damage when ranged)
3) SKILL DESCRIPTION:
Enchant, Warmth, and Fire Mastery:
In short, enchant has increasing gain at higher level. Warmth is the synergy for enchant. Fire mastery multiplies enchant damage. So... MAX THEM ALL! (besiding boosting enchant damage, fire mastery also boosts any potenail fire spell you might use, and warmth increases mana recovery rate, which works great with energy shield build)
Frozen , Shiver armor:
Depends on your playing style. If you want high defense, max one of the armor. ( I suggest shiver in this case, for higher defense bonus. Some pvm players might want the freeze by frozen armor). If you dont want to spend much on these two skills, put 1 point into one of the armor, works great with the + skills you have. Note, the cold armors are prebuffable skills. The bonus is calculated using the cast time skill level and it stays unchanged until it wears out or you cast it again.
Teleport:
I guess all sorc should have the skill. However, if you KNOW that you'll wear Enigma (or you are a dedicated bear enchantress) you can choose not to put points in it..
Static Field:
Great skill pvm, useless pvp. I think it works great with 1 point in it (helps take out tough targets, fire immunes, bosses). But if you pvp and somehow needs every skill point available, dont put point in it.
Energy Shield, Telekinesis
Energy shield absorbs any physical, magical damage that hits the sorc. Instead of lowering your life, certain percentage of the damage now goes to mana pool depends on the skill level. It doesn't do anything to Poison however.
As Energy shield's synergy,telekinesis lowers the mana cosumption rate for each damage absorbed by energy shield. Without it, for each damage that's redirected to mana pool, 2 mana will be consumed. When telekinesis is maxed, only 0.75 mana will be consumed instead of 2. Therefore, if you want to have a long lasting energy shield, you would want to invest pts into telekinesis.
Note: Mana reduction from Energy Shield is calculated after the pvp penality but before resistance is applied. Because of that, a high damage elemental attack such as fire ball will drain your mana pool. It is also imiportant to know, that energy shield disappears once your mana is drained completely.
WEREBEAR, LYCANTRHOPY
These two skills are granted by the runeword weapon "BEAST",
When you transforms into werebear, you get physical damage bonus, life bonus, defense bonus. Lycanthropy increases the life bonus and the duration for which you will stay in werebear form.
It is important to know that in werebear form, attack speed is mainly character dependent / weapon ias dependent / weapon type dependent. The main reason why people want to transform into werebear is the life bonus and fast attack speed, defense and physical damage bonus are also plus. There are some disadvantage about sorc werebear though. That is, you can't cast spells such as teleport, enchant, etc.. when you are in were form. You need to unshift in order to cast those spells. All you do in were form is basically normal attack. Also you might block slower in bear form. More discussion about werebear will be in section 4.
ZEAL:
This is a skill granted by the runeword weapon "Passion".
It's about the same as zeal for pally, only that sorc needs more IAS than pally does just to hit as fast.
I am not sure about the zealing speed vs IAS though. Also I dont have the information about the fastest zeal speed for sorc.
SPECIAL TOPIC ABOUT DAMAGE GOES TO MANA, ENERGY SHIELD, AND TELEKINESIS
Some people claim that with Damage goes to mana, high level Energy Shield, and maxed Telekinesis you can build an invulnerable sorc. WRONG.
Let's see how they work..
Firstly, damage does to mana ONLY WORKS with physical damage. Since it's usually the elemental attack that drains mana pool, it's already not very appealing.
Secondly, even if it does make a mana-replenishing combo, mana burn monster can still suck up your mana bulb.
Thirdly, energy shield is capped at absorbing 95%, so you will take 5% of damage no matter what.
Lastly, it doesnt' work anyway.. here's the proof.
Assume you have a level 40 energy shield (since absorbing % is capped at 95% at level 40), maxed telekinesis, and 50% Physical Damage Reduction. (PDR)
Now an attack of 1000 physical damage hits you
95% goes to mana -- hence 950 goes to mana, 50 goes to physical.
mana reduced = 950 x 0.75 (Telekinesis) = 712.5
life reduced = 50 x 0.5 (PDR) = 25.
So to make up for the mana lost, you need 712.5 / 25 = 2850% damage goes to mana. Which is impossible.
Assume you have level 20 energy shield, maxed telekinesis, and 50% PDR
Again an attack of 1000 physical damage hits you
75% goes to mana -- hence 750 goes to mana, 250 goes to life.
mana reduced = 750 x 0.75 = 562.5
life reduced = 250 x 0.5 = 125
So to make up for the mana lost, you need 450% damage goes to mana. Still impossible and you are already taking 25% of the damage.
Therefore, it's not a good idea to have high% damage goes to mana with energy shield and telekinesis. If you think, you'll find out they work for opposite purposes kinda of.
Other related skills:
Hydra - great 1 point wonder. It works pvm as an enemy detector (so you dont walk into burning soul blindly), it distracts enemy group. It works pvp because it makes certain character block / dodge. It might stun opponent, it might scare opponent, and it actually does a bit damage since you maxed Fire mastery and hopefully has a lot of + fire skills.
Lightening/ Cold mastery
If you want to use weapons that grants these two kinds of elemental damage, the mastery will boost those damage when you melee. If you are using skills in these two trees, go for it..
Frozen Orb, Thunder Storm, etc
These skills provide 2nd form of elemental attack.. whether to get them or not is up to you.. ..
That's it for today.. tired
Continue tomorrow
The Ultimate Enchantress Guide V2.00
Preface:
Since no one including myself has my old guide(V1.00?), I have to rewrite the whole thing again. Any inputs / ideas welcomed. Since I typed this out in a short period, if there's any mistakes, or any part unclear / doesn't make sense, let me know. Thanks
Note: If you think you have basic knowledge about enchantress, just go straight to the section you are interested in. Else, I recommand you to read the whole thing. It's worth the time.
Table of contents:
Basic Knowledge stage:
1) Introduction
2) Everything you need to know about enchant
3) Skills description (including a section about Damage goes to mana, ES, and Telekinesis. Also a brief description about werebear)
Character developing stage
4) Skills (compare ZEAL enchantress to Bear enchantress, melee to ranged enchantress)
5) Stats and Equipment
6) Merc
Game Play stage
7) Leveling, pvm, untwinked character
8) PVP (including a section about bear enchantress vs. fire claw druid)
9) Cool pvp ideas. (keep it as a secret for now..)
1) INTRODUCTION:
Enchantress is a sorc build centered around the skill "enchant". All enchantress must (in my opinion) max Warmth , Enchant , and Fire Mastery. Those who don't max these three skills might be called melee sorc, bow sorc - but not enchantress. I'll dicuss the reason why later.
Enchantress is a type of sorc that is capable of something most other sorcs builds are not capable of, that is, the ability to melee or attack with bow efficiently. Basically, enchantress relay heavily on the huge Fire damage and high Attack Rating bonus enchant grants.
With an enchantress you can do at least the following:
Melee with 16k + fire damage easily at a good speed
Shoots out explosive arrow / guided arrow carrying 4k + fire damage
Grant your party member nice fire damage and AR ( hence works great party pvp, and power leveling your friend's low lvl character)
Other ability depends on how you want to build it. (The three important skills will be maxed with just 62 skill points, so people can build different enchantress based on their need).
2) EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ENCHANT
2A) How enchant damage is calculated
When you cast enchant, look at the skill tab where it says skill level is xx and enchant adds xxxx ~xxxx damage, let's refer to the xxxx ~ xxxx damage as the Cast Time Damage. When you perform melee attack, enchant adds the Cast Time Damage multiplied by current Fire Mastery bonus (the fire mastery level at the time of attacking). When you perform ranged attack using a bow, enchant only adds the Cast Time Damage itself to your attack.
Example: If your skill tab says enchant grants 4000 damage and your fire mastery gives + 300%. Then when you melee, you deal out 4000 x (100% + 300%) fire damage which is 16000. Where as when you attack with bow, only 4000 fire damage is dealt. Then, you decide to remove a fire skill charm. So fire mastery level now drops by 1, bonus drops by 7%. You new melee fire damage becomes 4000 x (100% + 293%) = 15720, and new ranged fire damage stays the same at 4000.
Note: The character information screen gives you the correct melee damage. But it gives you faulty ranged attack damage. Don't be fooled by the number.
2B) Enchant is a prebuffable skill.
Knowing how enchant damage works, we should try to get the Cast Time enchange Damage as high as possible when you cast it. And the easiest/ most effective way is to raise skill level. It is important to note that, enchant has increasing gain at high level, which can be observed using a skill planner. You can see the damage difference between a level 45 and level 46 enchant is bigger than that between a level 5 and level 10 enchant.
So what's good prebuff gear? (the equipment you should wear when you cast enchant)
Here's a list that everyone should try to aim for
10 Fire skill Charms
1 Annihilus small charm
Helm: + 3 fire skill circlet (socket it with 2 x + 5 % fire facets)
Ammy: + 3 fire skill ammy
Armor: +3 enchant Omus' Robe with +15% fire damage (socket it with + 5 % fire facet)
Belt: Aranchid Mesh (+ 1 all skill)
Rings: + 1 skill rings (SOJ, bul katho..)
Gloves: Magefist
Boots: Doesn't matter
Now Best weapon / Shield combination
+ 3 fire skill sorc orb with + 3 enchant, + 3 fire mastery socketed with 2 fire facetes, + 1 skill shield with fire facet.
This will result in level 51 enchant, level 48 fire mastery, with 6 fire facets
The Cast Time Damage will be about 4840~5575
Melee fire damage is about 24400~ 28070, where as ranged fire damage is same as Cast Time Damage.
2nd Best weapon/ shield combo
"Leaf" runeword staff with + 3 enchant, + 3 fire mastery
Cast Time Damage is about 4500~5190
3rd Best weaopn/ shield combo
Eschuta;s Templer with + 3 sorc + 20% fire socketed with 1 fire facet, 1 skill shield with fire facet.
Cast Time Damage is about 4370~5050
4th place
Mang Song's Lesson with 1 fire facet
Cast Time Damage is about 4355~5025
You get the idea..
2C) Who / When to cast enchant on
You can enchant on yourself anytime, but you can only enchant your party member if at least one person ( you or the party member) is outside of town. You can enchant on minions, (necro's , druid's , assisents', zon's...), you can enchant on Mercenary. Unless you enchant on a sorc with fire mastery, otherwise, what they'll get is the AR bonus and the Cast Time Damage when they do melee/ ranged attack. You should enchant on every non caster character in your party if possible.
2D) Chracters take the higest level Enchant
That is, when you enchant someone with a level 30 enchant first, then enchant with level 35, the level 35 will replaces old one. If you cast same level enchant, it reset the timer. If you cast lower level enchant, it doesn't do anything. =]
2E) How does enchant works with Explosive Arrow?
When you fire out an explosive arrow against someone, there's this possibility to hit the target twice. First is the arrow itself. If it passes the defense and block, it will hit. And the damage is the physical damage + enchant damage + any other sources of damage it carries. The second hit is the explosion. If target is in range, it will always hit ignoring target defense ( zons can dodge though, I think). The explosion damage is the fire damage you have, usually about the same as Cast Time Damage. Since there are two hitting checks, it is possible to put target opponent in block / fhr lock.
2F) The concept about fire mastery "Double Boosting"
Some people say it's a feature, some say it's a bug.. I think it's just normal and makes total sense.
Firstly, we know that Mastery (fire, lightening) boost elemental damage when sorcs melee. That is, fire (lightening) mastery will multiply any added fire (lightening) damage from charms, equipments when sorc melee.
Now, since enchant is a fire skill, it gets multiplied by fire mastery. And what does enchant do? It adds fire damage to the weapon. You can consider enchant as having an invisible charm that adds fire damage. Then when you melee, that fire damage from the invisible charm (enchant) is multiplied again just like any other fire damage charms would. So it makes total sense to me. And it explains why enchant is not multiplied when you go ranged. (because mastery doesn't boost the added elemental damage when ranged)
3) SKILL DESCRIPTION:
Enchant, Warmth, and Fire Mastery:
In short, enchant has increasing gain at higher level. Warmth is the synergy for enchant. Fire mastery multiplies enchant damage. So... MAX THEM ALL! (besiding boosting enchant damage, fire mastery also boosts any potenail fire spell you might use, and warmth increases mana recovery rate, which works great with energy shield build)
Frozen , Shiver armor:
Depends on your playing style. If you want high defense, max one of the armor. ( I suggest shiver in this case, for higher defense bonus. Some pvm players might want the freeze by frozen armor). If you dont want to spend much on these two skills, put 1 point into one of the armor, works great with the + skills you have. Note, the cold armors are prebuffable skills. The bonus is calculated using the cast time skill level and it stays unchanged until it wears out or you cast it again.
Teleport:
I guess all sorc should have the skill. However, if you KNOW that you'll wear Enigma (or you are a dedicated bear enchantress) you can choose not to put points in it..
Static Field:
Great skill pvm, useless pvp. I think it works great with 1 point in it (helps take out tough targets, fire immunes, bosses). But if you pvp and somehow needs every skill point available, dont put point in it.
Energy Shield, Telekinesis
Energy shield absorbs any physical, magical damage that hits the sorc. Instead of lowering your life, certain percentage of the damage now goes to mana pool depends on the skill level. It doesn't do anything to Poison however.
As Energy shield's synergy,telekinesis lowers the mana cosumption rate for each damage absorbed by energy shield. Without it, for each damage that's redirected to mana pool, 2 mana will be consumed. When telekinesis is maxed, only 0.75 mana will be consumed instead of 2. Therefore, if you want to have a long lasting energy shield, you would want to invest pts into telekinesis.
Note: Mana reduction from Energy Shield is calculated after the pvp penality but before resistance is applied. Because of that, a high damage elemental attack such as fire ball will drain your mana pool. It is also imiportant to know, that energy shield disappears once your mana is drained completely.
WEREBEAR, LYCANTRHOPY
These two skills are granted by the runeword weapon "BEAST",
When you transforms into werebear, you get physical damage bonus, life bonus, defense bonus. Lycanthropy increases the life bonus and the duration for which you will stay in werebear form.
It is important to know that in werebear form, attack speed is mainly character dependent / weapon ias dependent / weapon type dependent. The main reason why people want to transform into werebear is the life bonus and fast attack speed, defense and physical damage bonus are also plus. There are some disadvantage about sorc werebear though. That is, you can't cast spells such as teleport, enchant, etc.. when you are in were form. You need to unshift in order to cast those spells. All you do in were form is basically normal attack. Also you might block slower in bear form. More discussion about werebear will be in section 4.
ZEAL:
This is a skill granted by the runeword weapon "Passion".
It's about the same as zeal for pally, only that sorc needs more IAS than pally does just to hit as fast.
I am not sure about the zealing speed vs IAS though. Also I dont have the information about the fastest zeal speed for sorc.
SPECIAL TOPIC ABOUT DAMAGE GOES TO MANA, ENERGY SHIELD, AND TELEKINESIS
Some people claim that with Damage goes to mana, high level Energy Shield, and maxed Telekinesis you can build an invulnerable sorc. WRONG.
Let's see how they work..
Firstly, damage does to mana ONLY WORKS with physical damage. Since it's usually the elemental attack that drains mana pool, it's already not very appealing.
Secondly, even if it does make a mana-replenishing combo, mana burn monster can still suck up your mana bulb.
Thirdly, energy shield is capped at absorbing 95%, so you will take 5% of damage no matter what.
Lastly, it doesnt' work anyway.. here's the proof.
Assume you have a level 40 energy shield (since absorbing % is capped at 95% at level 40), maxed telekinesis, and 50% Physical Damage Reduction. (PDR)
Now an attack of 1000 physical damage hits you
95% goes to mana -- hence 950 goes to mana, 50 goes to physical.
mana reduced = 950 x 0.75 (Telekinesis) = 712.5
life reduced = 50 x 0.5 (PDR) = 25.
So to make up for the mana lost, you need 712.5 / 25 = 2850% damage goes to mana. Which is impossible.
Assume you have level 20 energy shield, maxed telekinesis, and 50% PDR
Again an attack of 1000 physical damage hits you
75% goes to mana -- hence 750 goes to mana, 250 goes to life.
mana reduced = 750 x 0.75 = 562.5
life reduced = 250 x 0.5 = 125
So to make up for the mana lost, you need 450% damage goes to mana. Still impossible and you are already taking 25% of the damage.
Therefore, it's not a good idea to have high% damage goes to mana with energy shield and telekinesis. If you think, you'll find out they work for opposite purposes kinda of.
Other related skills:
Hydra - great 1 point wonder. It works pvm as an enemy detector (so you dont walk into burning soul blindly), it distracts enemy group. It works pvp because it makes certain character block / dodge. It might stun opponent, it might scare opponent, and it actually does a bit damage since you maxed Fire mastery and hopefully has a lot of + fire skills.
Lightening/ Cold mastery
If you want to use weapons that grants these two kinds of elemental damage, the mastery will boost those damage when you melee. If you are using skills in these two trees, go for it..
Frozen Orb, Thunder Storm, etc
These skills provide 2nd form of elemental attack.. whether to get them or not is up to you.. ..
That's it for today.. tired
Continue tomorrow
)