03-18-2003, 07:32 PM
I'll give you the reasons why I almost NEVER choose cold mercs:
Way back in classic, I heard a rumour that shattered bodies dropped less often than non-shattered ones. Not entirely true, but the psychological effect caused me to notice cold DID seem to lower drop rates.
I LOVE Inferno. The only thing that could make Inferno any better would be if there was a "Jet Propulsion" effect added to it, so that it could be used as an alternative form of transport(and incidentally, from a strategic standpoint, would cause more damage with it, since the monsters would have to chase the caster, thus running into more fire, etc) :D
EVERYBODY and his brother was using Orb-sorcs some time back, and I would never stoop to that level of cookie-cutterness(besides which Inferno Sorcs live life on the EDGE)
Now, as to the virtues of the individual mercs themselves.
The Ice Merc is the only one with a single-target spell(Ice Blast) I hate that.
Inferno/Lightning are PIERCING projectiles. The Lightning has MAXIMUM range from the start, but lower minimum damage(and don't get me started on the lack of masteries)
Fireball hits almost as many enemies as Glacial Spike, and the explosion has a bit of stun, which is the same no matter which difficulty you're in, unlike freeze/chill durations.
Charged Bolts cover the largest area of the screen(to tell the truth, I've never actually devoted any legit characters/mercs to that, so I really can't say, but level 20 CB at clvl 99 Merc should make MSLEBs look positively tame by comparison), and since multiple hits from the same casting are possible, the somewhat tame damage each bolt does on its own is offset by force of numbers. Main drawback to this is that if the bolts are spread over many targets, they're unlikely to kill anything(as compared to say 10+ bolts hitting a single target)
I hope that answers your first post.
Way back in classic, I heard a rumour that shattered bodies dropped less often than non-shattered ones. Not entirely true, but the psychological effect caused me to notice cold DID seem to lower drop rates.
I LOVE Inferno. The only thing that could make Inferno any better would be if there was a "Jet Propulsion" effect added to it, so that it could be used as an alternative form of transport(and incidentally, from a strategic standpoint, would cause more damage with it, since the monsters would have to chase the caster, thus running into more fire, etc) :D
EVERYBODY and his brother was using Orb-sorcs some time back, and I would never stoop to that level of cookie-cutterness(besides which Inferno Sorcs live life on the EDGE)
Now, as to the virtues of the individual mercs themselves.
The Ice Merc is the only one with a single-target spell(Ice Blast) I hate that.
Inferno/Lightning are PIERCING projectiles. The Lightning has MAXIMUM range from the start, but lower minimum damage(and don't get me started on the lack of masteries)
Fireball hits almost as many enemies as Glacial Spike, and the explosion has a bit of stun, which is the same no matter which difficulty you're in, unlike freeze/chill durations.
Charged Bolts cover the largest area of the screen(to tell the truth, I've never actually devoted any legit characters/mercs to that, so I really can't say, but level 20 CB at clvl 99 Merc should make MSLEBs look positively tame by comparison), and since multiple hits from the same casting are possible, the somewhat tame damage each bolt does on its own is offset by force of numbers. Main drawback to this is that if the bolts are spread over many targets, they're unlikely to kill anything(as compared to say 10+ bolts hitting a single target)
I hope that answers your first post.