12-25-2003, 08:40 PM
I tried a lightning sorc. I went all-out lightning to be able to test all skills. 5k CL and 10k Lightning damage should be sufficient - and they were not. I do not know why (CL seems to be slower than other spammable skills, and Lightning does not seem to be affected by fast cast at all), but the only REAL killer lightning skill I saw was charged bolt - and even that could not compare to a single-synergy fireball.
Consider: a sorc can cast a 1-10k lightning, whereas an assasin can lay 5 x 1-5k traps, meaning 2.5 times the damage output. Ah, and she gets shadow varrior, fade and mind blast, and for all this she has to sacrifice teleport, and the now useless energy shield. That is just sad game ballance even if we disregard the existence of the (for me unattainable) Enigma.
And yes, I tried to play my novasorc as well. Deader than dead.
Mind you, all these tries were around skill level 30. If one has 10 lightning skill charms with an annulus and whatnot, one might find a usable lightning skill. At the moment however I found that with +10 to skills a 20-orb 1 mastery "build" kills most cold immunes faster, than a 20-20-20-20 lightning sorc. I define this as unviable.
And yes, I presume one could make any sorc skill work if you get a bow merc that can stop monster regen. You can keep teleporting about with maxed TS and for things to die. I for one find this rather painful, thus the "hasty" non-viable tag. I should have said "lightning skills are significantly weaker", but my original post was intended more as a sarcastic post and less an informative one.
Also, static is a wonder; however, it's a one-point one. I do not consider a sorc using static a three-elementalist; it's just a specialist with the most powerful equalizer.
And about Frozen orb: the synergy is nearly useless (outside PvP). The mastery, however, is wonderful! -145% at level 26, now come on! Anything that's not immune is (cold) toast. In case of the other ice skills, you need the specialization. GS does weak damage, and Blizzard misses so often, that you must make every hit count. In case of the fire tree, Meteor does not necessarily need all it's synergies, but fireball needs at least one (16k Venom Lord life, anyone?).
Ah well, we're all playing different games after all :)
Consider: a sorc can cast a 1-10k lightning, whereas an assasin can lay 5 x 1-5k traps, meaning 2.5 times the damage output. Ah, and she gets shadow varrior, fade and mind blast, and for all this she has to sacrifice teleport, and the now useless energy shield. That is just sad game ballance even if we disregard the existence of the (for me unattainable) Enigma.
And yes, I tried to play my novasorc as well. Deader than dead.
Mind you, all these tries were around skill level 30. If one has 10 lightning skill charms with an annulus and whatnot, one might find a usable lightning skill. At the moment however I found that with +10 to skills a 20-orb 1 mastery "build" kills most cold immunes faster, than a 20-20-20-20 lightning sorc. I define this as unviable.
And yes, I presume one could make any sorc skill work if you get a bow merc that can stop monster regen. You can keep teleporting about with maxed TS and for things to die. I for one find this rather painful, thus the "hasty" non-viable tag. I should have said "lightning skills are significantly weaker", but my original post was intended more as a sarcastic post and less an informative one.
Also, static is a wonder; however, it's a one-point one. I do not consider a sorc using static a three-elementalist; it's just a specialist with the most powerful equalizer.
And about Frozen orb: the synergy is nearly useless (outside PvP). The mastery, however, is wonderful! -145% at level 26, now come on! Anything that's not immune is (cold) toast. In case of the other ice skills, you need the specialization. GS does weak damage, and Blizzard misses so often, that you must make every hit count. In case of the fire tree, Meteor does not necessarily need all it's synergies, but fireball needs at least one (16k Venom Lord life, anyone?).
Ah well, we're all playing different games after all :)