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Sorc build: Tazer - Raziel - 02-26-2003

Hi all,

I've been pondering a PvM sorc build for a day or so that is a combination/middleground between something like a Kuko-sorc and a Melee sorc. Granted, that's not a lot of time, but i've put some thought into it.. so far the only weakness seems to be a requirement for some 9 or 10 Jewels of Thunder (high elemental lightning damage).

I picked the name simply because she would resemble a Tazer - throwing out something which causes an electrical jolt to the target.

The idea behind the build is to make a Sorceress who use ranged weapons to inflict elemental damage whose capacities are multiplied by Fire and Lightning Mastery. I originally thought of using Javelins until I realised that the stack sizes on Throwing Weapons were better and faster.

This character will not be terribly useful until the late 40's, when their first mastery is being maxed and they can finally equip some of the better, higher elemental damage throwing weapons. The goal or endgame of this character is to equip an enormously high elemental damage one hand weapon on each weapon switch and swap between them based on immunities.

Skill plan:

20 Lightning Mastery
20 Fire Mastery
10 Static Field (should be enough?)
1 Teleport

I have no idea what to do with the points after those. 20 into Frozen Orb? There is also exactly zero finishing capability at low level.

Stat plan:

Strength - enough to wear items, the less the better.
Dex - a lot.
Vit - not so much?
Energy - base?

Weapon plan:

"Low" <_< levels (47+):

Weapon 1: Buzzing Balanced Knife of Quickness
Required level 46, 40% IAS, 1-260 best possible lightning damage.

Weapon 2: Smoking Balanced Knife of Quickness
Required level 47, 40% IAS, 80-130 best possible fire damage.

Obviously at high levels you simply move to higher Fire/Lightning damage prefixes, like Condensing and Shocking.

Combined with Lava Gouts (20% IAS) a Balanced Knife are thrown pretty quick.

Equipment plan:

3 socket Death Mask socketed with 3x Jewels of Thunder: 3-300 best possible lightning damage
3 socket Light Plate socketed with 3x Jewels of Thunder: 3-300 best possible lightning damage
3 socket Large Shield or Kite Shield with 3x Jewels of Thunder: 3-300 best possible lightning damage
3 socket Large Shield or Kite Shield with 3x Jewels of Burning: 75-150 best possible fire damage

These selections were designed with an absolute minimum of strength in mind, given other planned equipment. The Jewels will bump the level requirements of the items up to 43. Obviously, you use the fire damage shield with the fire damage Balanced Knife.. :) To upgrade you you would have to allocate points into strength as your level rises and slowly swap out 3 socket items for 4 socket items.

Razortail belt, or Thundergod's Vigor (but requires 110 str) for 1-50 extra lightning damage.
Lavagout gauntlets, adds 13-46 Fire Damage, 20% IAS and slvl 10 Enchant (but requires 88 str). Sander's Taboo is an option.
Cow King Hooves are perfect boots for this build. 30% FR/W and 25-35 added Fire Damage. Low requirements.

Rings and Amulet must be from the Angelic set to achieve the AR necessary to actually hit monsters. A Kuko sorc doesn't have this problem, as explosive arrows always hit.

Charm plan:

Loads of high lightning and fire damage charms. With only 12% Lightning and 7% Fire benefit from each skill point in masteries, you're better off devoting that stuff to raw elemental damage.

Potential problems:

1. Very limited ammunition, and unlike a bow, you can't just buy another stack. You can swap weapons when you run low if your target isn't immune to Lightning or Fire.

2. Hitting targets will be difficult even with Angelic items unless you pump your dex.

3. The helm and armor are lightning damage oriented with a low minimum.

4. Getting the Jewels won't be easy.

5. Large packs might cause problems even with static field and a lot of throwing.

6. If it's immune to Lightning AND Fire, you're dead. Maxed Frozen Orb?

7. You will look hilariously funny.

Anyway, i'm thinking about doing it; slowly collecting the stuff I need. I think i'll build the sorc tonight and try and get some lvls (or at least some laughs).

Comments and criticism welcome.

Sorc build: Tazer - jahcs - 02-26-2003

Does the mastery actualy add to the weapon damage? Or does it only affect casted spells damage?
Also do + to elemental damage charms increase spell damage then? I never thought it did.

Sorc build: Tazer - Obi2Kenobi - 02-26-2003

Last I checked, Masteries do not increase elemental damage on weapons.

Sorc build: Tazer - Sporky Smurf - 02-26-2003

ALL Elemental damage a Sorceress does is increased by the masteries. But no, charms do not effect spells.

Some other skill options: Glacial Spike? May help the crowd-control front, even if damage and freeze is low. Another option is always Ice Blast or Frost Nova.

Sorc build: Tazer - Odd - 02-27-2003

you may want to look into tiamats rebuke... nice shield for a sorc like this :)

Sorc build: Tazer - WarBlade - 02-27-2003

Raziel,Feb 27 2003, 08:46 AM Wrote:The idea behind the build is to make a Sorceress who use ranged weapons to inflict elemental damage whose capacities are multiplied by Fire and Lightning Mastery.&nbsp; I originally thought of using Javelins until I realised that the stack sizes on Throwing Weapons were better and faster.
err . . . "Throwning Knives" I think. Javelins are throwing weapons. ;)

Quote:This character will not be terribly useful until the late 40's, when their first mastery is being maxed and they can finally equip some of the better, higher elemental damage throwing weapons.

50's ;)

Quote:Skill plan:

20 Lightning Mastery
20 Fire Mastery
10 Static Field (should be enough?)
1 Teleport

I have no idea what to do with the points after those.&nbsp; 20 into Frozen Orb?&nbsp; There is also exactly zero finishing capability at low level.

With Frozen Orb on board she'll never throw a knife.

Try Chilling Armor and drop a few points in Cold Mastery. Also considering how mana independant this build is, Energy Shield could go a long way.

Oh yeah. Max out Enchant.

Quote:3 socket Light Plate socketed with 3x Jewels of Thunder: 3-300 best possible lightning damage

By the time you find those jewels you'll be looking for better armour than that. Remember Larzuk's socketting? Think four socket armour. B)

And you might want to sacrifice some of your lightning damage hopes for some AR. The Helm and Gloves of Sigon's set will be a decent combo.

A Ravenfrost would be something to treasure.

Sorc build: Tazer - Raziel - 02-27-2003

^ Yeah. I know, having to hit 50 before you "start" sucks, and it's still largely an experiment. I guess thats why i'm putting my time to this and building one of these suckers. Slowly. To see if it's not a total waste. (Probably will be!!)

My idea was to save skill points and wear Lavagouts instead for free enchants. But I had also considered Sigon's Helm as a possible AR source. Apparently you can also shop "Visionary" helms, and there's always a Blessed Aim merc.

I didn't think Larzuk could socket stuff that was ALREADY socketed?

Tiamat's is a nice shield but considering you have a Fire-based Throwing Knife on one hand and a Lightning-based one on the other, you might as well go all out with heavy Fire jewel socketed and heavy Lightning jewel socketed stuff.

Sorc build: Tazer - Walkiry - 02-27-2003

Perhaps you should be looking for a jeweler's armour (or is it artisan's?), that can give you 4 sockets to play with plus a potentially nice suffix.

Sorc build: Tazer - Raziel - 02-27-2003

I'm trying to get hold of Stormstrike (Unique Edge Bow) as a preliminary weapon for this build; probably socketed with a Jewel of Thunder.

Sorc build: Tazer - Occhidiangela - 02-27-2003

Skystrike. :)

I like it, when I can find it.

Sorc build: Tazer - Raziel - 02-27-2003

That's the one, yeah. I suck. :(

Anyway, I still have to reach the right level and hope to heck I hit things with Angelic ammy + rings, or i'm pretty screwed.

Sorc build: Tazer - Albion Child - 02-28-2003

You should max enchant. Why?

1.) adds signifigant extra damage
2.) Will allow you to be effective if you run out of fire damage ammo against a lightning immune.
3.) If you plan to use a merc, They get very nice benefits! Act 1 and 2 mercs each get double enchant bonus, while act 5 mercs bet triple bonus (only with 2h sword, returns to double with 1h.)

This is because each mercenary has a base damage AND a weapon damage. The Effect from enchant is added to BOTH.

One thing to keep in mind is Mercenaries do not benefit from Fire mastery, so they get the bonus of enchantment as if you had no points into fire mastery. (you could use Chippydips site to determine this damage.)



http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~cbradfor/diablo2/skills.html



I disagree with WarBlade's suggestion to use Energy Sheild. Though he is correct in his thinking (I assume) that since you won't need mana, energy sheild won't hurt since depleting your mana pool won't hurt you. However, your mana ball will be so low, that the amount of damage absorbed by the sheild would be barely worth the skill point investment.

As for dealing with Light/fire immunes? I would use frost nova. Yes the damage is pathetic, but it's usefulness would extend beyond just dealing with these immune creatures (which would probably show up once in a blue moon anyway. I played a Hydra/Nova/TS sorceress, and the only time I remember a monster of this type was one of the ancients and a council member.)

Sorc build: Tazer - Raziel - 02-28-2003

4) Allows me to drop Lavagouts for Sigons gloves + helm without worrying too much about the loss of enchant or fire damage.. :)

My equipment setup is taking shape: Sigons Gloves and Helm, Angelic Rings and Ammy, Cow King's Hooves, Hwanin's Belt (1-33 lightning damage) and then:

1. Tri-socket Lightning jewel filled Death Mask and either:

2. Spirit Forge with dual Lightning jewels; or
3. Three or Four socket armor filled with Lightning jewels

I'm beginning to prefer the former as Spirit Forge gives +life/clvl, strength and +fire damage.

Thank you for your suggestions; i'm tending to agree with your point of view in regards to Energy Shield as I do not plan on any points into Energy at all.

It is looking more and more like i'm going to have to go hardcore dex - gee, just like a regular melee sorc. The good news is that with enough dex, Angelic and Sigon's helm I should do fine for hitting :)

I've now got Skystrike, and I have a spare Kuko Shakaku. Both bows should do me until I get high enough to use my high elemental damage throwing knives. A Hibernal weapon (45-140 CD at best) might not be entirely bad for Light/Fire immunes, combined perhaps with one point in glacial spike so that I can keep them either moving slowly or entirely frozen.

Once I get high enough to switch to my throwing knives i'll probably do so. Then I need a shield. I see three options:

1. Pile on yet MORE lightning/fire damage via jewel socketed shields
2. Go with two Tiamat's Rebuke - good damage, great resistances, crap blocking
3. Go with Whitstan's Guard - block block block

I'm favouring option 2 as it's most achievable and probably benefitial to trade off some elemental damage in favour of resistances. Problem is, the strength requirement is high. But you could really get some extreme damage going on if you went all out.

A three socketed tower shield would give great blocking and enormous elemental damage potential. Hmm.. 3 sockets in helm.. 2 in Spirit Forge.. 3 in shield.. and a Shocking Balanced Knife of about 450 damage. It wouldn't be hard to break 1000 lightning damage, which, when multiplied by Lightning Mastery, would one-hit-kill a Hell Bovine in solo Hell cows. :ph34r:

Hmm, after a quick reread, it seems sorc blocking is reduced no matter what you do. Tower shields aren't that great. I guess a Kite Shield would do for all-out jewel socketing.

Sorc build: Tazer - Obi2Kenobi - 02-28-2003

Obi2Kenobi,Feb 26 2003, 10:32 PM Wrote:Last I checked, Masteries do not increase elemental damage on weapons.
Am I correct?

Sorc build: Tazer - Raziel - 02-28-2003

Put bluntly.. no. Masteries do apparently increase elemental damage, although I do not know if the behaviour is intentional.

Sorc build: Tazer - Obi2Kenobi - 02-28-2003

Hmm... I thought it was only on spell damage...

Sorc build: Tazer - Raziel - 02-28-2003

Well.. uh.. gee, I hope I am right about this, or the character really IS a total waste of time!!!

Um, hrm, time to go read some forums and stuff!!

Edit: Well, that was fast. These guys seem to affirm that it does, in fact, work: http://forums.rpgforums.net/showthread.php...threadid=146539

Sorc build: Tazer - LavCat - 03-04-2003

Raziel,Feb 28 2003, 07:09 PM Wrote:Well.. uh.. gee, I hope I am right about this, or the character really IS a total waste of time!!!

Um, hrm, time to go read some forums and stuff!!

Edit:&nbsp; Well, that was fast.&nbsp; These guys seem to affirm that it does, in fact, work: http://forums.rpgforums.net/showthread.php...threadid=146539
My intention was to quote, but I'm not sure how to do it. I rather liked the old forum software better, even if it did eat posts.

Anyhow I did a test. I have a sorceress with lightning mastery that wears a SOJ. I wrenched off the Stone of Jordan with my teeth, and her damage went down by exactly 1-12. I conclude that masteries do not increase elemental damage in this case.

If anyone else has results to the contrary I would love to see them.

To add to the bit about shields for sorceresses, my melee sorceress carries Gerke's Sanctuary. Who would have thought that my first hero to hold a pavise would have been a sorceress?

Sorc build: Tazer - WarBlade - 03-04-2003

LavCat,Mar 4 2003, 09:07 PM Wrote:Anyhow I did a test.&nbsp; I have a sorceress with lightning mastery that wears a SOJ.&nbsp; I wrenched off the Stone of Jordan with my teeth, and her damage went down by exactly 1-12.&nbsp; I conclude that masteries do not increase elemental damage in this case.

If anyone else has results to the contrary I would love to see them.
Three rules to remember when testing such things.

1.) Don't trust the lying character screen.

2.) Don't trust the lying character screen.

3.) Go hit a friend's character with a very exact amount of nothing-to-influence-it's-resistances and record the amount of life that your friend reports losing from his/her character. ;)

Sorc build: Tazer - Raziel - 03-04-2003

It must be multiplying, because at level 51 I finally maxed Fire and Lightning mastery. I can now kill cows with my Skystrike, albeit rather slowly, because I seem to roll the minimum damage of 1 fairly often!!

Still levelling.. slowly.. waiting to use my better items..