I'm considering making a Fighter Sorc, just for fun, not a PvPer or an MFer.
I need help doing my skills.
Energy Shield and Shiver armor are obvious max outs, that means with prereqs and static field, I'll have used 47 skill points.
I looked at enchant, and even with it's synergy maxed, it's total crap! Or is it... Anybody made a swell Fighter Sorc?
If I don't use enchant, should I use a support spell like Hydra, or Frozen Orb? Keep in mind I won't have many plus skills.
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Don't dismiss Enchant too fast.
It confers a lot of AR and lack of AR is the weakness of a Mêlée Sorceress.
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Quote:I looked at enchant, and even with it's synergy maxed, it's total crap! Or is it... Anybody made a swell Fighter Sorc?
This turns out not to be the case. Since Fire Mastery is applied twice to melee Enchant damage, you can easily do 4k or more fire damage, even without much in the +skills department. And, as ShadowHM said, the additional AR is vital.
I'm not sure ES is all that and a bag of chips, either. Its mana drain is applied before resists, and as a melee sorc, your mana pool will be rather small. I would live in fear of ES draining away the mana I need to Teleport at just the wrong moment.
The weapon of choice for the melee sorc seems to be a "Passion" Phase Blade. It gives you Zeal, a big chunk of AR, and is one-handed so you can block. "Delirium" hats are all the rage as well, if you can get the runes. Its CTC Confuse makes for much easier crowd control on a build that doesn't have many options in that regard.
Have you read MongoJerry's Enchantress Guide? It's quite excellent.
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If you're getting ES, you want the TK synergy. And 'passion' isn't so hot, since the zeal speed isn't much of an improvement. A fire damage phase blade might be better with enchant.
What if i just put 1 point in Energy Shield?
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Well, I did 1 ES, 20 TK for my nova sorc, but 1 ES alone might be ok if you're spamming spells (ie. need a big mana pool anyway). And there was a post somewhere (diabloii.net forums I think) about a 40 ES, max TK build with damage and magic damage reduced items that could tank a WSK frenzytaur pack.
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Ah, but while Zealing you're uninterruptible. That's a significant issue for sorc whose hit recovery can be measured in interglacial epochs.
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A fair point, but can you block while zealing?
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Ugh, Melee Sorceresses aren't what they used to be. Believe me, I know :D Back in the day *cough* enchant was useless. Good to see it's been improved, but wether it'll get you through nightmare? Fire Resists aren't all that uncommon. Still, now it's probably the best way to go, unless you want a huge dying/potmixing/retrying fest like I had :P
But yeah, from my experiences ES is a bad idea. You will be low on mana (because your most important stats are Dex and Vit) and not being able to teleport out when needed will... wel, suck, to put it mildly ;) Personally, I advise a Act2 Holy Freeze Mercenary, because the slowdown on monsters is great. Of course, when you find that your merc is killing faster than you are, it's probably time to call it quits. ;) You might want to go for a might merc instead, as pure raw physical damage won't be too shabby. (against fire immunes which sadly pop up early in the game. Enchant is pretty useless then)
And you do not ask the cost...
Fighter class characters' rely on their weapon for damage. Why is it that a Sorc won't be doing damage with just a normal weapon like another class would use?
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Barbarians have masteries and combat skills. Paladins have auras and combat skills. Druids have wereform and wereform combat skills.
Sorceresses have enchant.
The other classes can also get massive amounts of off-weapon ED. This will multiply their weapon damage and give them a large amount of physical damage. The only off-weapon ED sorcs have comes from their stats (1% off-weapon ED per point in strength with most weapons), their equipment (e.g. ED jewels in armour) or their merc (only if he has a might aura). So sorcs just can't compete with the combat classes in terms of physical damage.
They do, however, have an immensely powerful fire component from the enchant.
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My current setup with my sorceress is as follows:
hat: shako
armor: tals (needed resists and armor :P )
belt: upgraded nightsmoke
glove/boot: sigons
weapon: passion
shield: SS
ring1: soj (works with passion for +1 zeal)
ring2: raven frost
amulet: rising sun
Merc: defiance
Between the soj, shako, nightsmoke, and maxed warmth I don't run out of mana unless it is versus a mana burner, or something nastier than I should be attempting to fight so energy shield is practical. I didn't pump TK for the synergy because versus mana burn if I am hit it's gone anyway.
For charms I have been collecting every small charm above 1-20 damage and every large charm above 1-30 and maxed lightning mastery to work with those (Now reflected in character screen, go 1.10!). So now my sorc attacks with 3 elements fire, lightning, and a little physical. :D
I also have a shaeled kuko for those times when I would normally wish I was wearing delerium. :blink:
Skills have been pretty much stated maxed warmth, enchant, fire mastery, lightning mastery, 1 point + prereqs for ES, rest in cold armor.
Quote:belt: upgraded nightsmoke
How do you 'upgrade' a nightsmoke? How do you 'upgrade' any weapon? What does it do when you upgrade it?
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unrealshadow13,May 14 2004, 02:04 PM Wrote:How do you 'upgrade' a nightsmoke? How do you 'upgrade' any weapon? What does it do when you upgrade it? List of some cube recipes
For unique armor (which includes belts, helms, and other defense-type items):
Quote:1 Tal Rune + 1 Shael Rune + 1 Perfect Diamond + Normal Unique Armor = Exceptional Version of Armor
1 Ko Rune + 1 Lem Rune + 1 Perfect Diamond + Exceptional Unique Armor = Elite Version of Armor
Upgrading items changes the base type from what it initially is to a higher base type. In the case of Nightsmoke, it changes the belt from, well, a belt to a mesh belt. The mods and the name stay the same, but because it is now an exceptional class item, it now has 16 slots as opposed to the 12 it initially had. Note that the +%def works on the base item type, in this case a mesh belt.
Only uniques and rares can be upgraded, and only exceptional uniques can be upgraded to elite on the ladder.
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Quote:Note that the +%def works on the base item type, in this case a mesh belt.
And note that the defense on upgraded items is bugged to be less than it should be in most cases. Certain items even lose defense when upgraded, especially if ethereal (the ethereal defense bonus is lost completely).
Quote:only exceptional uniques can be upgraded to elite on the ladder.
I know what you mean, but that doesn't match up with what you said.
Only on the ladder (or SP, TCP/IP or open) can you upgrade exceptional items to elite. You can't upgrade exceptional items to elite on non-ladder realms.
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adeyke,May 14 2004, 03:47 PM Wrote:I know what you mean, but that doesn't match up with what you said. Grammar that is good have not I. ;)
Quote:You can't upgrade exceptional items to elite on non-ladder realms.
Non-ladder rares can be upgraded to elites can't they? I don't have any non-ladder characters left to confirm this, but I always thought they could.
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Oops. You're right. Only the unique exceptional->elite recipes are ladder-only. So it seems instead of clarifying, I did the opposite. Mea culpa.
Why does blizzard hate non-ladder so much???
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Quote:h, but while Zealing you're uninterruptible. That's a significant issue for sorc whose hit recovery can be measured in interglacial epochs.
This is known and noted, but it is not clear from your post wether you quote this as a good thing or a bad thing?
Experience shows, (that is, MY experience shows), that the uninterruptability of zeal is the greatest drawback to a Passion blade. I don't know what kind og equipment are you all using, but my sorc did not manage to stay toe-to-toe with, say, a group of balrogs in hell for a complete Zeal-cycle. I ended up removig zeal from my hotkeys, since it got me killed so many times.
HotW charges could also be useful, in case one was doing physical damage. Alas, that is not the case.
I seriously believe that nearly any fast-swinging one hander outperforms a passion phase blade for an enchantress.
If I were to pick an eitem for my Melee Enchantress, it would be Djinni Slayer. It has a base speed of -20, can have 2 sockets, and with 70% ias (2 shaels and sigons) you're at 10 frame (the fastest a phase blade can get you). It also has a huge fire damage that gets multiplied by your maxed mastery. They are relatively cheap to trade for, too.
Of course, the IDEAL weapon would be an azurewrath... but who has one?
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