LLD101

Dao Jones · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:48 am Post subject:

I was actually thinking of helping lowbies get their kills in NM and Hell Den. Should I max Chain Lightning and/or Nova instead? I'd like to have SOME Enchant, and I was figuring the Warmth would help my mana regen until I get better gear. (I expect to be using simple runewords like Stealth, Memory, Nadir and Splendor for a while, until I start being able to trade for basic Sorc stuff.)

How much Enchant is needed for lowbies to be able to get a kill in NM/Hell, as well as boost my Merc when needed?

Hades · Joined: 03 Jul 2004 Posts: 958 0.00 Silvarrr

Also if you really want a merc that has fire abilities this weapon can be made without breaking the bank.
Obedience
5 Socket Polearms Hel + Ko + Thul + Eth + Fal
30% Chance To Cast Level 21 Enchant When You Kill An Enemy
40% Faster Hit Recovery
+370% Enhanced Damage
-25% Target Defense
Adds 3-14 Cold Damage 3 Second Duration (Normal)
-25% To Enemy Fire Resistance
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
+200-300 Defense (varies)
+10 To Strength
+10 To Dexterity
All Resistances +20-30 (varies)
Requirements -20%

MortisNostre · LoPF Joined: 17 Nov 2005 Posts: 1084 0.00 Silvarrr

any untwinked sorc will need insight, unfortunetly.

anyway Dao, how set are you on the idea of incorporating chant into your rushing sorc? If you have the time, you can throw together a half assed* chant sorc as a side project, in litterally no time and of no cost, for the purposes you mentioned above. Considering your going totally untwinked, youll need to really focus on dmg to make your lit sorc an effective rusher. Thats what i would do. What are your priorities?

*leaf (+3 chant base - shoppable) + 3 fire ammy + 3 fire circlet + any 1skill armor + max and synergized chant will be more than enough

Dao Jones · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:27 am Post subject:

I am not at all set on incorporating Enchant into my build. It just sounded cool to have something like a Blizzchanter, or a Lightchanter. Smile

Seriously though. I can shop a staff to use for Leaf, and use my +Sorc skills to pump it up, if that will be enough in Hell for some sad lowbie. (With generous Static field assistance to get the critter to 50%.)

How much "twinking" do I need to be able to build dual-element? Figure I'll eventually get a gear set-up like this: Shako, Viper, +1 skills shield, +2-3 skills weapon (Spirit, or some other Sorc weapon), plus at least one +skill GC. That's about +7 skills. Not insanely awesome, but would it be enough to attempt more than one element? I'll build a single-element Sorc if that's my only option, but I'm the kind of person that likes options if possible.

KnightXENO2 · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:23 pm Post subject:

Everyone has there favorites, but my all around favorite early ladder build (since I suck with Hdins and just don't like the playstyle) is a pure blizz sorc (with 1pt into TS & ES). Don't worry about anything expensive at first. You will get by fine with utter crap until mid-hell [I'm talking a spirit sword, rockstopper, magi, rhyme, mages, whatever ammy/rings you can find]. Just make sure you cow NM/hell until you get a decent elite eth insight (although obedience works as a decent temp also if you chug mana pots), and hopefully a vamp helm for your merc. Static & TS works on all immunes unless phys immune (then use chainlight with 1pt into it on those). Just don't try to MF/rush full hell games until your gear improves, you want 1-3 people in a game max while your still "fragile".

Ideally I always deck mine out with full tals (filled with the crap facets I always fine that no-one wants)/spirit monarch 2x fcr/str rings for temp. Lose one of this rings (for an SoJ if you MF one) once you get an anni (by randomly being in a hell game that someone pops that IP on) or a torch [easy if you have a freind or another char that is a crap smiter with dracs/black flail/etc].

But then again I norm use my sorc for my all around everything character (MF/Rush/Farm) instead of building different characters for different purposes.

Dao Jones · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:46 pm Post subject:

Wank · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:53 pm Post subject:

Didn't read most of the posts, but my Chanter is an orb sorc too, and it works out pretty well.

KnightXENO2 · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:53 pm Post subject:

Well I don't know then, but I can only think of a few areas off hand that are really bad for rushing with a cold sorc (Chaos sanctuary, anya, those birds in Baals throne room).

But light might very well be faster, just not sure how much good gear you would have to have to make a good lightning sorc. I'm sure the other posters could advise you though.

MortisNostre · LoPF Joined: 17 Nov 2005 Posts: 1084 0.00 Silvarrr

im pretty sure light is the way to go
- kills efficiently and can achieve high dmg untwinked
- LIs are least frequent IIRC

Id definitely stick to one element, I have a lit sorc whose gear i havnt changed since the first few weeks of ladder, and that manages to rush hell with relatively few difficulties. Most LIs i just ignore or let my merc kill if i really have to. Telekinesis is my friend.

Again, my advice would be to stay away from enchant/synergies...but I suppose if your going to do this then stick with your original skill distribution. With that said, Be prepared for low damage and relatively slow killing.

Mimes · _________________ 1,000th post on 12/12/07

go orb enchant if you REALLY want to be a chanting hybrid.

if not go with light, and as said b4 get a leaf or something with + chant and get some fire prebuff gear.

Light sorcs are the best for PVM... fire sorcs arent that bad either, but they make rushing tough (chaos + sometimes norm andy) then again, blizzers can do really well, but their cast delay annoys me personally.

Go with a light sorc. Ask around if someoen can hook u up with tal rashas. Full tals light sorc with a sanc/ splendor ftw.

Weaj · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:45 pm Post subject:

Adding on top of Dao's question, since I'm not the greatest on sorcs, most of my experience is with classic sorcs which are mainly all either Meteorb or blizz or some static hybrid. Currently with mysorc on West Ladder, I chose with static orb, since it was good at starting out with and which I'm quite familiar with, with Dao, the left over skills afterwards I was thinking about charged bolt to make a Static/Orb/Charged Bolt Sorceress, I would think it would be decent enough for mfing/rushing/key running etc.

Dao Jones · Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 1:35 am Post subject:

Okay, so after screwing around with a few different skills, I decided to go with a Frozen Orb Sorc. I know Light was the recommendation, but I just wasn't feeling the love with Lightning, and CL seemed kinda hard to make good.

Anyway, I'm currently level 53, and I basically finished my Orb path at 49 (20 Bolt, 20 Orb, 1 currently in Mastery). So now I've got another few dozen levels to go, and no idea what I want to spend points on. Here were my ideas, but I would like some advice. (I know I didn't listen last time; that doesn't mean I don't like hearing options!)

1. I could dump points into Nova/Light Mastery, and go Nova/Orb. Easy to max, because it doesn't have a synergy. Not a whole lot of damage, but I already have points in the Light tree (1 each in Static, TK and TP), so more skills here (and +skillers, later) would work out well.
2. I could max Firewall/Fire Mastery. Same excuse as Nova, except burn-y goodness.
3. I could do something whacky. Warmth/Enchant, ES/TK, max Thunderstorm; something along those lines.

Vietthehand · Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:32 am Post subject:

id definently put ~10-15 points into cold mastery. then id probabaly do a couple into static for the increased range and a couple into warmth and a couple into tk and eshield. this is assuming that you dont have gear that will add lots of plus to skills. although she doesnt kill as fast as other people, my untwinked single element orb sorc + merc can solo the whole game.

Dao Jones · Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 8:57 am Post subject:

Hmm. My current skill allotment is this:

20 Ice Bolt
20 Frozen Orb
01 Cold Mastery
01 Static Field
01 Telekinesis
01 Teleport
01 Warmth
04 Pre-reqs

I was planning on letting my CM sit around +3 (where it is now) until Hell, but I wasn't sure how far I wanted to bump CM for Hell (my nominal goal was around -75 Cold Res). But I'll definitely put more points here in short order. (I'm also going to try to shop for a Lower Res wand on switch.)

I'm finding that my Prayer Merc with even a crappy 12 Med Insight is actually handling most of my Mana needs, so I'm not sure I want to kick too much more into Warmth right now. Also, I'm a bit reluctant to stick to a single element. I've already run into my first Cold Immunes, and I'm not happy with my Merc's killing speed (even with my Static help), so I'd like something offensive I can do to help out there.

So, ultimately, I think I need a second element, and it probably needs to be something that doesn't use a synergy. So my thoughts were Nova, Thunderstorm, or Firewall.

dragonfire_god · Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:35 pm Post subject:

I use fireball on my tals cl sorc, I don't know how much +skills you have but one point in bolt/fb/fm does enough damage to kill anything thats immune pretty much, I also have a cold merc with stacked holy shock working for me too, she works really well. I mf normal most of the time and my mercs hs aura kills just about anything in normal with one hit but she also does well in hell I can run just about everything but chaos.. and if I threw an infinity on her she could do chaos I think.