12-25-2003, 11:18 AM
You're definition of viable is very narrow ;) Lightning tree has some great skills, even for damage (static field and thunderstorm, at least). It just doesn't really have any one skill that you can spam away and everything dies.
I suspect that many sorc players overspecialize. Frozen orb with 20 points in synergy is what, 17% more damage than orb with 10 points in synergy? Instead of killing something with 7 orbs you only need 6 (neglecting regen, which of course can be dealt with in many ways if necessary)... how much will you notice that difference in gameplay? With +5 to all (sorceress) skills from items and those 10 points, you could probably bolster your existing lightning skills enough to kill the occasion fire/cold immune boss (at the very least, make life easy for your merc). And these skills (well again, static and thunderstorm, at least) can be useful combination spells even when you are using fire or cold for the primary damage against a monster.
Of course, if the character is a variant who relies on frost nova and wants to avoid using certain powerful skills, that's a whole other animal...
I suspect that many sorc players overspecialize. Frozen orb with 20 points in synergy is what, 17% more damage than orb with 10 points in synergy? Instead of killing something with 7 orbs you only need 6 (neglecting regen, which of course can be dealt with in many ways if necessary)... how much will you notice that difference in gameplay? With +5 to all (sorceress) skills from items and those 10 points, you could probably bolster your existing lightning skills enough to kill the occasion fire/cold immune boss (at the very least, make life easy for your merc). And these skills (well again, static and thunderstorm, at least) can be useful combination spells even when you are using fire or cold for the primary damage against a monster.
Of course, if the character is a variant who relies on frost nova and wants to avoid using certain powerful skills, that's a whole other animal...