Enchantress Plan

[arrunique]

I have a ranged enchantress at level 65 right now just ending nightmare. My plan is to max orb in order to deal with fire immunes. Right now I'm running the NM countess to get enough runes together to make a Memory +3 enchant staff. Between the staff, Vipermagi and Lore I'll have +5 all skills +8 total to enchant. Then I have the mighty demon machine on as my main attack.

I want to have max resists as well as pouring as many stats as I can into life for those inevitable stray hits. I have max resists except poison in nightmare and am pretty sure I'll still have all my resists at least in the 50s in hell, probably higher. Demon machine and razortail are the only mandatory pieces of gear and I can live without razortail, I'm wondering what setup should I go for in the rest of the pieces?

Current setup -
Hat: Lore - not even sure what to go for there, probably a circlet that is better than lore
Amulet: Manoak Curio - going to try to craft something better in a few levels, probably caster. Anyone know at which level you can craft/gamble for +2 skills amulets?
Armor: Vipermagi - What are the opinions on Lionheart vs Viper? I can socket the Viper with an UM for 50% resists which would free up some inventory space from charms. Lionheart has a lot of decent mods but no skills.
Gloves: Laying of Hands - I'm just using it for the IAS and resists, not the demon damage so I think I can craft gloves with almost as good mods and knockback
Weapon: Demon Machine - what to socket? If I put 15% IAS in it I have more flexibility in the gloves space, if not what else should I socket in there? Ideal socket would be scintillating jewel of fervor but I'm not holding my breath on finding one of those.
Rings: Resist rares - If I find I can give up some resists I'll try to get a Raven but I'm not sure that would be that beneficial
Belt: Sigon - Still trying to trade for that Razortail
Boots: Resist rares - Any unique come to mind I should look for. My boots have no run but I don't seem to miss it.

Merc
Act 5 barb, serving me well so far, I'm afraid he will be shredded in hell.
Hat: Circlet with life leech, resists and enhanced damage (I think) - Is there a good crushing blow helmet?
Armor: Crow Caw - Would Rattlecage be better or would the hit causes flee just be annyoing?
Weapon: Crainte Vomir - The 50% IAS seems to work really well with the enchant damage, I'm more worried about about fire immunes so if I could get my mitts on a Frostwind I think that would be sweet.

Any other ideas or anything I'm missing?

[Life]

Very interesting build idea. Is the demon machine better than a kuko for example. Since the kuko has built in peirce and exploding damage. Would mage fist gloves but of any use with its +1 to fire skills?

I look forward to hearing/seeing more about how this build goes. Sir+die+alot made a melee enchantress that did very well in hell. A ranged attacker is a rather interesting twist.

Life

[arrunique]

Very interesting build idea.

Not my idea, stolen from here:
Enchantress Strategy

The demon machine is also explosive, and much faster than kuko, also has higher pierce rate 66%(?) You lose the fire damage but that isn't signifigant compared to extra pierce and more physical damage.

I thought about magefist but my guess is I'm going to need some resists on the glove slot. I haven't been to hell yet and haven't checked how my resists are there. If I felt like going nuts on the enchant I could keep magefist in my stash and switch out equipment but that is going a bit far and keeping anything you aren't wearing in your stash in hardcore is asking to get spanked. With a lucky crafting and keeping the vipermagi I can hit the 63% fast cast breakpoint.

As for how it is going normal and nightmare are a cakewalk once I got the demon machine it became as easy as with an orb sorc.

[gekko]

Demon machine is THE weapon for a ranged enchantress. It has better damage, is very easy to achieve a quick attack speed, adds tremendously to your AR (further increased by enchant), and, though you seem unaware of this fact, has both exploding damage and a piercing attack. The +1 fire skills on magefist are definately useful to an enchantres, pumping both enchant and fire mastery up a level.

A ranged enchantress is one of the best party characters in 1.10. The fire damage benefits any melee damage characters, hirelings, or minions, and the AR boost is helpful even against fire immunes. If you're rich enough to equip a very sturdy merc, the enchantres can be extremely powerful solo in hell, as well. Obviously fire immunes are the main problem, however, there are ways around this.

The idea of maxing orb for use against fire immunes should work out just fine. While I don't have experience with that particular combination, I have used a non-synergied orb to great effect, even in multiplayer, with several of my sorcs. I've also tried the ranged enchantres, and had a blast with her.

If you haven't already done so, look up MongoJerry's excellent enchantres guide (hosted here in the strat section). Quite full of very useful tips and info.

gekko

[adeyke]

Kuko Shakaku:
Requires 49 dexterity
Requires 54 strength
Requires level 33
48.5-54.5 average damage
50% pierce
slvl 7 exploding arrows
40-180 fire damage
Needs 42% IAS for 12 frames, 65% IAS for 11 frames, 102% IAS for 10 frames, 174% IAS for 9 frames

Demon Machine
Requires 98 dexterity
Requires 80 strength
Requires level 49
84 average damage
66% pierce
slvl 6 exploding arrows
+321 defense
+36 mana
+632 AR
12 frames base, needs 8% IAS for 11 frames, can't be faster

IMHO, the extra pierce, extra speed and huge AR boost are much better than the Kuko's fire damage. Unless you don't yet meet the requirements for the Demon Machine, I think Demon Machine is a vastly superior choice for an enchantress.

[Caaroid]

Just popping in to agree with adeyke.

Also some practical pieves of advice:
In hell, the most dangerous things aren't going to be fire immunes (got teleport, right?) The ONLY things that kept killing me there were gloams. 75% resall, 700 life. One pack, and pack.

At the time I played partied with a conviciton pala and a summoner necro (if anyone can find a more ideal team for an enchantress, please do tell). Gloam packs, however, proved deadly (especially on the way to miss mirelite; we got toasted).

Mercenary advice: get a Holy Freeze one. He'll be lev 47, but it is just silly how suited enchantresses are for cow runs. In 1 hour you can have your merc at your level doing single-player cow runs. That slow really helps, my lev 71 HF merc proved far more durable than my lev 80 barb, and I think it is easier to outfit actII merces anyway (for some odd reason people don't give up on barbs, even when it is obvious that 6k ww damage with a 70% ias weapon still won't cut it in hell, there is a high demand for swords, thus they are expensive. Spears not only look more powerful, but you can buy them cheaper, another plus for your act II merc.)

About Orb: will you have the mana for it? Since I sorely played partied I maxed teleport (first happened then in the past 2 years, but having rediscovered the move-for-free feeling it is hard to let go). The idea seems good, but a high level orb drains your mana supply faster than a mana-burn gloam pack (ok, only since they drain your life supply faster, but anyway). I only had like 150 mana on my sorc, that'd allow shooting 5 orbs (yuk).

About equipment: wear skin. If you have the UM to burn, lucky you. I wore a Tals helm with a 14% resall 15% ias jewel in it (lucky me), demon had nef, gloves were magefists. (Believe it or not, you do need the fast cast from skin and mage to teleport. The skills also help.)

My build started out as a mixed melee/ranged build, but having found out that Passion's Zeal only gives you zeal lock quickly turned my build into a regular ranged enchantress. If, however, you happen to be one of them rich buggers with a warshrike or the like, use a high-blocking high-resist shield on alter since it CAN really save your ass at times. Then again, this would mean that you need the knockback from the gloves... ah well, I never had to deal with this problem so far :(

Hope some of that helps you